TikTok is introducing a fresh option that allows them to reduce the volume of AI-created videos appearing in their streams. This move comes as the platform disclosed that it now features over 1 thousand million AI-generated clips.
Pilot Phase and Launch
The new functionality is undergoing trials over the coming weeks before a widespread rollout. This shift aligns with a surge in content created by AI, driven by recent AI video creators.
AI Proliferation Online
Recent reports that almost 10% of the most rapidly expanding channels on a popular video site primarily display AI-generated videos. A significant portion of this material is considered “AI slop”, a term for inferior, mass-produced content that is typically absurd or bizarre.
“We know from our community that a lot of users appreciate content made with AI tools, including digital art to science explainers, and we intend to provide users the power to increase or decrease of that, depending on their own likes,” commented a platform representative.
Volume and Proportions
The service announced that there are now 1.3 billion videos on its app tagged as made with AI. In total, over 100 million videos are uploaded to the app each day, making AI content a relatively small portion of its complete catalog.
User Control Features
Members will be capable of decrease or raise the volume of AI content they watch by accessing the content preference feature in the platform and selecting “AI-generated content”. Other topics that are already be adjusted under the tool cover politics, style, cosmetics, and movement.
AI Disclosure Rules
Its rules mandate content makers to label “realistic” AI-made content, and it bans malicious AI impersonations of celebrities or emergencies. Any realistic AI video that is unmarked can be taken down under its user guidelines.
Additionally, the platform will henceforth apply an artificially created watermark to content made using its own AI tools, or detected by an collaborative effort for identifying content made by AI. This step is designed to stop users from seeking to evade the labeling process.
Educational Initiatives
The platform is additionally establishing a $2 million educational fund for experts and groups to develop educational content about responsible artificial intelligence. This project will benefit charitable organizations focused on teaching coding and technology.
Content Safety Approach
The platform has supported its moderation strategy, amid controversy over intentions to make redundant hundreds of safety staff in the UK. It is expected to cut hundreds of positions in its trust and safety department in its British office, with worker representatives and digital protection specialists voicing alarm that people are being substituted by AI moderation.
A trust and safety lead stated that staff-based oversight would still have a role, but AI can protect employees by eliminating the most harmful content before it gets reviewed by humans. TikTok stated a notable drop in disturbing and violent content seen by human moderators over the last 12 months due to intervention by its AI tools.
“We think that it’s essential to integrate staff and AI to keep the platform safe,” she said. “We’ll have people as part of that process, but we also think it’s highly necessary to minimize viewing of harmful content as swiftly, which is why a significant AI assistance is making a difference work at speed.”
