Users will soon have a updated setting that allows them to reduce the amount of AI-created content appearing in their timelines. This move comes as the service revealed that it now features in excess of 1 bn AI videos.
Pilot Phase and Launch
This change is in a pilot phase over the next few weeks before a widespread rollout. This development comes amid a surge in AI-generated material, fueled by emerging AI video creators.
AI Proliferation Online
Studies have shown that approximately 10% of the fastest-growing channels on a competing service exclusively feature clips produced artificially. A significant portion of this material is considered “AI slop”, a phrase for substandard, factory-style content that is typically absurd or bizarre.
Our research shows that numerous viewers like content produced via AI tools, ranging from digital art to science explainers, and we aim to offer the community the option to increase or decrease of that, based on their own preferences,” commented a platform representative.
AI on the Platform
The platform disclosed that there are presently 1.3 billion videos on its app labeled as AI-generated. In total, more than 100 m media items are uploaded to the platform every day, making AI content a relatively small portion of its overall inventory.
User Control Features
Users will be capable of decrease or raise the level of AI content they watch by using the content preference option in the platform and picking AI-made media. Other topics that currently be modified under the setting include politics, clothing, aesthetics, and choreography.
Content Labeling and Policies
TikTok’s guidelines oblige users to identify convincing artificially created content, and it forbids malicious AI impersonations of well-known individuals or crisis events. Any realistic AI video that is without a tag can be taken down under its community policies.
Furthermore, the app will from now on attach an AI-generated label to content made using its built-in AI features, or detected by an industry-wide initiative for spotting AI-generated material. This step is intended to deter users from seeking to bypass the labeling process.
Educational Initiatives
The platform is also establishing a $2m awareness program for experts and institutions to develop learning resources about ethical AI use. This program will support non-profit groups specializing in training computer science.
Moderation Strategy
The platform has supported its content review process, amid controversy over intentions to lay off a large number of review team members in the UK. TikTok is expected to cut a significant number of roles in its user protection team in the UK capital, with trade unions and digital protection specialists voicing alarm that humans are being replaced by AI moderation.
A company official stated that staff-based oversight would continue to be important, but AI can shield workers by eliminating the most harmful content ahead of it gets reviewed by people. The company reported a notable drop in shocking and graphic content handled by human moderators over the past year due to reliance on its machine learning processes.
“We think that it’s essential to combine people and machines to keep the platform safe,” she said. “We’ll have humans as involved in the system, but we also think it’s highly necessary to limit contact with dangerous material as swiftly, which is where a significant AI assistance is really helping us work at speed.”
