As Technology Gets More Universal, TikTok Will Begin Labeling AI-Generated Content

May 9, 2024

TikTok will start tagging artificial intelligence-generated material when it is published from sources other than its own platform. According to TikTok, such initiatives are an attempt to stop false information from spreading on its social media network.

"While AI opens up amazing creative possibilities, it can also mislead or confuse viewers if they don't realize that content was created using AI," the business stated in a prepared statement on Thursday. We have been requiring producers to label realistic AIGC for more than a year, and we label AIGC created using TikTok AI effects since labeling helps make that context evident.

This action is a component of a larger endeavor by tech sector players to offer additional protections for AI applications. Meta declared in February that it was developing technological standards with industry partners to facilitate the identification of photos and, eventually, audio and video produced by artificial intelligence algorithms. Users of Facebook and Instagram would be able to view labels on AI-generated photos that show up in their feeds on social media.

AI labels will be available on YouTube and other Google sites, the company announced last year. 
US President Joe Biden's October executive order included a drive for digital watermarking and labeling of anything created by artificial intelligence.
Using its Content Credentials system, TikTok announced that it is collaborating with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. 
AI-generated material can be quickly identified and labeled with the use of metadata that may be appended to content, according to the business. Video and picture usage began on Thursday, according to TikTok, and audio-only material will shortly follow. 

In the months to come, TikTok content creators will be able to download their Content Credentials, which will stay tied to the video. As a result, users will be able to recognize artificial intelligence (AI)-generated material on TikTok and discover the creation and editing process of the content. It will be automatically tagged by other platforms that use Content Credentials.

To encourage the industry's acceptance of the credentials, TikTok said that it is the first video-sharing platform to use them and that it would join the Content Authenticity Initiative, coordinated by Adobe.

In the past, TikTok has encouraged users to identify content that has been heavily modified or created by artificial intelligence. Additionally, users must mark any AI-generated material that includes realistic voice, video, or graphics.

The AI moves by TikTok come just two days after the company and its Chinese parent, ByteDance, announced that they had filed a lawsuit against a new American law that would have prohibited the video-sharing app in the country unless it was sold to a designated buyer. The lawsuit claims that the law unfairly singles out the platform and represents an unprecedented attack on free speech. 
In the long-running legal battle over TikTok's future in the US, which may ultimately reach the Supreme Court, this complaint is the newest development. TikTok claims that if it loses, it will have to close the next year.