Users will soon have a new feature that allows them to reduce the volume of AI-created media appearing in their timelines. This initiative comes as the company revealed that it currently hosts over 1 thousand million AI-generated clips.
Pilot Phase and Launch
The update is in a pilot phase over the next few weeks before a global release. This development comes amid a rise in content created by AI, driven by recent AI video creators.
The Broader AI Trend
Recent reports that approximately 10% of the quickest rising channels on a competing service only show AI-generated videos. A large amount of this output is considered “AI slop”, a label for inferior, factory-style content that is often illogical or bizarre.
“We know from our community that many people appreciate content created using AI tools, from digital art to science explainers, and we aim to provide users the option to increase or decrease of that, based on their own preferences,” stated a spokesperson.
Volume and Proportions
The platform disclosed that there are presently over a billion videos on its network tagged as made with AI. Overall, over 100 m videos are added to the service every day, making AI content a limited percentage of its total content library.
How to Adjust Settings
Members will be able to reduce or increase the level of artificial media they see by accessing the topic control feature in the application and selecting the AI content topic. Further subjects that are already be controlled under the setting cover politics, clothing, aesthetics, and movement.
Platform Guidelines
The platform’s guidelines oblige content makers to tag lifelike AI-made content, and it prohibits dangerous fake videos of celebrities or critical incidents. Any authentic-looking AI-generated clip that is not labeled can be deleted under its community policies.
Additionally, the app will henceforth add an artificially created tag to content made using its own AI tools, or flagged by an collaborative effort for spotting artificial media. This measure is aimed to help prevent users from seeking to evade the tagging system.
Educational Initiatives
The company is additionally introducing a $2m educational fund for specialists and groups to produce learning resources about ethical AI use. This initiative will assist non-profit groups specializing in educating coding and technology.
Platform Protection
TikTok has justified its moderation strategy, during discussion over proposals to lay off numerous review team members in the UK. The company is planning to cut a significant number of roles in its trust and safety department in the UK capital, with trade unions and digital protection specialists raising concerns that staff are being displaced by machine-led review.
A company official explained that staff-based oversight would remain essential, but AI can safeguard staff by filtering out the most distressing content before it is viewed by people. TikTok reported a significant reduction in explicit and harmful content seen by content reviewers over the last 12 months due to the use of its AI tools.
“We think that it’s essential to combine staff and AI to ensure user safety,” she said. “We’ll have staff as integral to the approach, but we further consider it’s highly necessary to limit contact with harmful content as rapidly, which is where a significant AI assistance is making a difference work at speed.”
