TikTok is introducing a new feature that allows them to reduce the quantity of AI-made media appearing in their timelines. This initiative comes as the company disclosed that it presently contains in excess of 1 billion AI videos.
Pilot Phase and Launch
The update is in a pilot phase over the following weeks before a widespread rollout. This advancement coincides with a increase in AI content, fueled by recent content generation software.
The Broader AI Trend
Studies have shown that nearly one in 10 of the quickest rising channels on a competing service exclusively feature clips produced artificially. A significant portion of this material is considered low-quality AI content, a phrase for inferior, bulk-generated content that is often nonsensical or bizarre.
“We know from our community that a lot of users enjoy content created using AI tools, ranging from computer-generated images to science explainers, and we want to provide users the ability to see more or less of that, depending on their own preferences,” said a company executive.
Volume and Proportions
TikTok announced that there are now 1.3bn videos on its app identified as AI-generated. In total, in excess of 100 million media items are submitted to the service each day, making AI-generated material a relatively small percentage of its overall inventory.
User Control Features
Viewers will be able to limit or boost the amount of artificial media they see by accessing the “manage topic” setting in the app and selecting the AI content topic. Additional categories that currently be modified under the filter cover news, style, beauty, and choreography.
Content Labeling and Policies
The platform’s guidelines oblige content makers to label lifelike AI-made content, and it forbids dangerous fake videos of public figures or emergencies. Any realistic artificial content that is without a tag can be taken down under its terms of service.
Additionally, the service will henceforth apply an AI-generated tag to content created with its own AI tools, or identified by an cross-platform project for identifying content made by AI. This measure is designed to stop users from trying to circumvent the disclosure requirement.
Educational Initiatives
The company is also introducing a $2m awareness program for experts and organizations to create educational content about using AI responsibly. This program will benefit educational bodies dedicated to training computer science.
Moderation Strategy
The video-sharing app has defended its safety measures, amid controversy over proposals to make redundant numerous safety staff in the UK. TikTok is set to eliminate 439 jobs in its user protection department in its British office, with trade unions and internet security professionals raising concerns that staff are being displaced by AI moderation.
A senior executive explained that staff-based oversight would remain essential, but AI can shield workers by removing the most graphic content prior to it has to be seen by people. The platform stated a significant reduction in explicit and harmful content seen by human moderators over the past year due to intervention by its machine learning processes.
It is vital to combine humans and technology to ensure user safety,” the official commented. “We’ll have people as part of that process, but we further consider it’s highly necessary to minimize viewing of harmful content as quickly as possible, which is the area in which a lot of the machine support is proving valuable operate efficiently.”
