🔗 Share this article

TikTok is introducing a fresh option that enables them to reduce the quantity of AI-created videos appearing in their streams. This step comes as the company revealed that it currently hosts in excess of 1 bn content made with AI.

Trial and Implementation

The update is being tested over the next few weeks before a widespread rollout. This development comes amid a surge in AI content, spurred by recent content generation software.

AI Proliferation Online

Studies have shown that approximately a tenth of the fastest-growing content creators on a competing service exclusively feature AI-generated videos. A significant portion of this output is considered mass-produced AI material, a term for poor-quality, bulk-generated content that is often nonsensical or dreamlike.

Our research shows that many people appreciate content produced via AI tools, from computer-generated images to informative clips, and we want to provide users the option to increase or decrease of that, based on their own preferences,” said a company executive.

Scale of AI Content

TikTok announced that there are currently 1.3 billion videos on its app identified as made with AI. In total, over 100 m pieces of content are uploaded to the app every day, making AI content a relatively small percentage of its complete catalog.

User Control Features

Members will be able to reduce or increase the amount of artificial media they watch by using the content preference option in the platform and selecting “AI-generated content”. Further subjects that currently be modified under the filter cover politics, clothing, cosmetics, and dance.

Platform Guidelines

The platform’s guidelines oblige users to label lifelike AI-made content, and it forbids dangerous fake videos of public figures or critical incidents. Any realistic artificial content that is unmarked can be deleted under its terms of service.

Furthermore, the platform will from now on attach an AI-generated label to content created with its own AI tools, or detected by an cross-platform project for recognizing artificial media. This action is intended to help prevent users from trying to evade the labeling process.

Responsible AI Funding

The platform is additionally introducing a $2m educational fund for specialists and institutions to develop educational content about ethical AI use. This program will benefit educational bodies dedicated to educating coding and technology.

Moderation Strategy

The video-sharing app has defended its safety measures, amid discussion over plans to lay off a large number of safety staff in Britain. TikTok is set to eliminate a significant number of roles in its content moderation division in the UK capital, with worker representatives and online safety experts raising concerns that humans are being replaced by machine-led review.

A company official explained that people-led review would still have a role, but AI can shield workers by filtering out the most distressing content before it is viewed by staff. The platform stated a notable drop in disturbing and violent content reviewed by safety staff over the previous year due to intervention by its machine learning processes.

“We think that it’s essential to integrate staff and AI to maintain a secure environment,” she said. “We’ll have humans as involved in the system, but we additionally believe it’s extremely critical to minimize viewing of dangerous material as rapidly, which is why a lot of the machine support is making a difference work at speed.”