Users will soon have a updated setting that allows them to lessen the volume of artificial intelligence-produced videos appearing in their streams. This step comes as the company disclosed that it presently contains over 1 thousand million content made with AI.
Pilot Phase and Launch
The update is undergoing trials over the coming weeks before a widespread launch. This development coincides with a rise in content created by AI, spurred by new AI video creators.
AI Proliferation Online
Studies have shown that almost one in 10 of the most rapidly expanding content creators on another major platform exclusively feature clips produced artificially. A large amount of this output is considered “AI slop”, a term for inferior, factory-style content that is often absurd or bizarre.
“We know from our community that numerous viewers enjoy content created using AI tools, ranging from computer-generated images to science explainers, and we intend to offer the community the option to see more or less of that, depending on their own preferences,” commented a spokesperson.
Scale of AI Content
The platform shared that there are currently 1.3bn videos on its network identified as AI-generated. Overall, over 100 m videos are added to the platform each day, making AI content a limited portion of its complete catalog.
How to Adjust Settings
Viewers will be in a position to decrease or raise the volume of AI-generated videos they watch by accessing the topic control setting in the app and choosing “AI-generated content”. Additional categories that can already be adjusted under the tool cover news, clothing, beauty, and dance.
AI Disclosure Rules
TikTok’s guidelines mandate content makers to label convincing AI-made content, and it prohibits harmful fake videos of celebrities or crisis events. Any realistic artificial content that is not labeled can be deleted under its terms of service.
Additionally, the platform will now add an artificially created watermark to content produced via its proprietary AI systems, or flagged by an cross-platform project for identifying artificial media. This action is aimed to deter users from seeking to evade the labeling process.
Educational Initiatives
TikTok is also launching a $2m AI literacy fund for professionals and groups to develop learning resources about using AI responsibly. This program will support non-profit groups focused on teaching computer science.
Moderation Strategy
The platform has supported its moderation strategy, amid debate over plans to cut jobs for hundreds of review team members in the UK. The company is planning to cut a significant number of roles in its content moderation division in the UK capital, with labor groups and internet security professionals expressing worry that staff are being displaced by AI moderation.
A trust and safety lead clarified that staff-based oversight would remain essential, but AI can protect employees by filtering out the most distressing content before it is viewed by staff. The company reported a notable drop in disturbing and violent content seen by human moderators over the previous year due to the use of its automated systems.
“We think that it’s essential to integrate people and machines to keep the platform safe,” the executive stated. “We’ll have staff as involved in the system, but we further consider it’s very important to limit contact with unsafe media as swiftly, which is the area in which a lot of the machine support is making a difference operate efficiently.”
