CANNES, FRANCE — Oral arguments for appeal TikTok ban are scheduled to begin September 16 at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
While the platform’s fate is still uncertain, TikTok’s president of global business solutions, Blake Chandlee, is not.
“We are confident in our position,” Chandlee told Yahoo Finance in an interview at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. “You know, we think it’s a ban. We think that, from a legal perspective, the law is with us and we look forward to challenging it.”
Despite scrutiny from US lawmakers, TikTok continues to innovate through collaborative efforts and its latest launch – Symphonic Digital Avatars – has artificial intelligence at the forefront. Essentially, avatars are like you, but better.
“We think it’s a huge step forward in the creative process,” Chandlee said. “So we’ve been working with creators and brands for a while now to make sure we’re building something that really meets their needs.”
Symphony Digital Avatars are the latest in a suite of creative AI tools that TikTok launched this spring with the aim of scaling creator content globally.
“What we designed for avatars is to allow [creators] to create a piece of content and then scale it globally,” he explained. “So you can create it in Spanish or English and scale it to 30 languages, which immediately gives our community of creators the ability to reach audiences that they ‘ I’ve never been able to achieve before.”
“Similar on the graphics side, they can create different backgrounds, do different things,” Chandlee added, “so the idea is how do we empower and empower our community of creators?”
Overall, the creative community has a tenuous relationship with AI. Some have raised concerns about copyright issues, for example, while others see AI as making creative tools more accessible.
Chandlee said the reaction from brands and creators to Symphony Digital Avatars has been positive so far.
Going viral in multiple languages also allows brands to leverage these moments into ad revenue, using products like TikTok Pulse for targeted placement next to appropriate brand content. These AI tools also level the playing field in marketing costs so that small, lesser-known brands stand out.
“In the US alone, for example, we have 7 million small businesses that use the platform to help build their businesses, to build their brands, to reach audiences that they can’t reach elsewhere,” said Chandlee. in that regard.”
While TikTok is increasingly looking like an “everything app,” similar to what Elon Musk planned for X, formerly Twitter, Chanlee noted that there are nuances.
“It’s important to know that today it’s an entertainment platform, first and foremost… versus a social platform,” he said. “We are now adding features like shopping and live features within TikTok, which is an important part of the user experience. So we will continue to build features and functionality and innovate to make them as important as people want them to be in their lives.”
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