TikTok is introducing a updated setting that enables them to reduce the quantity of AI-made content appearing in their streams. This move comes as the platform revealed that it currently hosts more than 1 thousand million AI-generated clips.
Pilot Phase and Launch
This change is undergoing trials over the coming weeks before a global release. This advancement aligns with a increase in content created by AI, fueled by recent AI video creators.
AI Proliferation Online
Studies have shown that nearly one in 10 of the quickest rising video streams on a competing service exclusively feature AI-generated videos. A significant portion of this output is considered “AI slop”, a term for poor-quality, factory-style content that is often absurd or surreal.
“We know from our community that a lot of users like content made with AI tools, including digital art to informative clips, and we want to offer the community the power to adjust the amount of that, according to their own likes,” commented a platform representative.
Volume and Proportions
TikTok disclosed that there are currently 1.3bn videos on its service tagged as AI-generated. Overall, in excess of 100 m media items are submitted to the service daily, making AI-generated material a limited part of its complete catalog.
How to Adjust Settings
Viewers will be able to decrease or raise the amount of AI-generated videos they see by using the “manage topic” setting in the app and picking the AI content topic. Additional categories that are already be modified under the filter include current affairs, fashion, beauty, and choreography.
Platform Guidelines
TikTok’s policies oblige content makers to identify lifelike AI-generated content, and it prohibits malicious AI impersonations of public figures or critical incidents. Any authentic-looking AI-generated clip that is without a tag can be removed under its community policies.
Furthermore, the platform will henceforth attach an AI-generated watermark to content produced via its built-in AI features, or identified by an collaborative effort for recognizing artificial media. This measure is designed to stop users from seeking to circumvent the tagging system.
Educational Initiatives
The platform is also introducing a $2m educational fund for professionals and organizations to create learning resources about ethical AI use. This program will benefit educational bodies dedicated to training computer science.
Content Safety Approach
The platform has defended its safety measures, during controversy over proposals to cut jobs for numerous content moderators in the UK. TikTok is expected to reduce a significant number of roles in its content moderation team in London, with worker representatives and internet security professionals raising concerns that humans are being replaced by machine-led review.
A senior executive clarified that staff-based oversight would remain essential, but automated tools can protect employees by removing the most graphic content ahead of it gets reviewed by humans. The platform reported a notable drop in explicit and harmful content reviewed by safety staff over the past year due to intervention by its AI tools.
“We think that it’s essential to balance humans and technology to ensure user safety,” the official commented. “We’ll have staff as part of that process, but we further consider it’s very important to limit contact with dangerous material as swiftly, which is why a significant AI assistance is really helping us operate efficiently.”
