TikTok will begin labeling content created with artificial intelligence when it is uploaded from outside its own platform in an attempt to combat misinformation.
“AI enables incredible creative opportunities, but it can confuse or mislead viewers if they don’t know the content was generated by AI,” the company said in a prepared statement Thursday. “Labeling helps make this context clear – which is why we’ve been labeling AIGC made with TikTok AI effects and requiring creators to label realistic AIGC for over a year.”
TikTok’s policy change is part of a broader attempt by the tech industry to provide more safeguards for the use of AI. In February goal announced that it was working with industry partners on technical standards that will make it easier to identify images and eventually videos and audio generated by artificial intelligence tools. Facebook and Instagram users would see labels on AI-generated images.
Google said last year that AI labels are coming to YouTube and its other platforms.
A push for digital watermarking and labeling of AI-generated content was also part of an executive order that US President Joe Biden signed in October.
TikTok is joining the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity and will use its content credentials technology.
The company said the technology can attach metadata to content, which it can use to instantly recognize and label AI-generated content. TikTok said it began rolling out the technology on Thursday in images and videos and will soon launch audio-only content.
In the coming months, Content Credentials will be attached to uploads made on TikTok, which will remain in the content when downloaded. This will help identify AI-generated material made on TikTok and help people know when, where and how the content was made or edited. Other platforms that adopt Content Credentials may automatically label you.
“Using content credentials as a way to identify and stream synthetic media directly to audiences is a significant step toward AI transparency, even more so than typical watermarking techniques,” Claire Leibowicz, head of the AI Program and Media Integrity Partnership on AI, said in a prepared statement. “At the same time, we need to better understand how users react to these labels and wait for TikTok to report the response so we can better understand how audiences navigate an increasingly AI-augmented world.”
TikTok said it is the first video-sharing platform to put the credentials into practice and will join the Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative to help drive adoption of the credentials in the industry.
“TikTok is the first social media platform to support content credentials, and with more than 170 million users in the United States alone, its platform and its vast community of creators and users are an essential piece of this necessary chain of trust to increase transparency online,” Dana Rao, executive vice president, general counsel and chief trust officer at Adobe, said in a blog post.
TikTok’s policy in the past has been to encourage users to label content that has been generated or significantly edited by AI. It also requires users to label all AI-generated content that contains realistic images, audio, and video.
“Our users and creators are so excited about AI and what it can do for their creativity and ability to connect with audiences.” Adam Presser, TikTok’s head of operations, trust and safety, told ABC News. “And at the same time, we want to make sure that people have the ability to understand what is fact and what is fiction.”
The announcement initially came on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday.
TikTok’s AI moves come just two days after TikTok said it and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, had filed a lawsuit challenging a new American law that would ban the video-sharing app in the US unless it is sold to an approved buyer, saying it unfairly singles out the platform and is an unprecedented attack on free speech.
The lawsuit is the latest twist in what appears to be a prolonged legal fight about the future of TikTok in the United States – and which could end up in the Supreme Court. If TikTok loses, it will be forced to close next year.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
