TikTok Offers The Community Power to Limit AI-Generated Media in Personal Streams

Users will soon have a updated setting that enables them to cut down on the volume of AI-created content appearing in their feeds. This step comes as the service disclosed that it now features over 1 thousand million content made with AI.

Testing and Rollout

The new functionality is undergoing trials over the next few weeks before a global release. This development aligns with a surge in AI-generated material, driven by new video-generation tools.

AI Proliferation Online

Recent reports that approximately one in 10 of the fastest-growing video streams on a competing service only show content made by AI. A large amount of this content is classified as “AI slop”, a term for substandard, bulk-generated content that is frequently illogical or dreamlike.

Our research shows that many people like content produced via AI tools, ranging from AI artwork to science explainers, and we aim to give people the ability to increase or decrease of that, depending on their own choices,” said a company executive.

Scale of AI Content

The platform disclosed that there are currently 1.3bn videos on its service labeled as made with AI. Overall, in excess of 100 m videos are submitted to the platform daily, making clips made by AI a minor percentage of its total content library.

User Control Features

Members will be in a position to reduce or increase the level of AI-generated videos they view by using the “manage topic” option in the application and picking “AI-generated content”. Further subjects that can already be controlled under the tool include current affairs, fashion, beauty, and dance.

AI Disclosure Rules

TikTok’s guidelines mandate creators to tag “realistic” artificially created content, and it bans malicious AI impersonations of well-known individuals or critical incidents. Any realistic AI-generated clip that is unmarked can be taken down under its terms of service.

Additionally, the app will from now on apply an “AI-made” tag to content created with its built-in AI features, or flagged by an collaborative effort for identifying content made by AI. This measure is intended to stop users from seeking to bypass the tagging system.

Educational Initiatives

TikTok is furthermore introducing a $2m awareness program for professionals and organizations to create learning resources about ethical AI use. This initiative will assist non-profit groups specializing in teaching computer science.

Moderation Strategy

The video-sharing app has defended its moderation strategy, during discussion over intentions to lay off hundreds of safety staff in the UK. TikTok is set to reduce hundreds of positions in its content moderation division in its British office, with worker representatives and digital protection specialists voicing alarm that humans are being replaced by AI moderation.

A senior executive explained that staff-based oversight would remain essential, but AI can shield workers by removing the most harmful content ahead of it is viewed by staff. TikTok reported a notable drop in explicit and harmful content handled by human moderators over the last 12 months due to the use of its machine learning processes.

“We think that it’s essential to balance staff and AI to ensure user safety,” she said. “We’ll have staff as part of that process, but we additionally believe it’s extremely critical to reduce exposure to dangerous material as swiftly, which is why a extensive automated help is really helping us process content quickly.”
Jamie Booth
Jamie Booth

Evelyn is a tech journalist with over a decade of experience covering UK innovations and digital transformation across various sectors.