TikTok demands you label any realistic AI content

August 14, 2023

The rapid growth of AI-generated content has triggered discussions about its usage and whether more regulation is needed. For example, many fake images and videos have been used to spread misinformation. Because of this issue on cyber security, top companies such as Meta, Google and Amazon promised The White House they would roll out a tool that easily identities AI-generated content. And now it looks like TikTok is taking measure to combat misinformation caused by realistic AI content on its platform.

TikTok adds a new toggle for AI content

As AI-generated content, such as the Pope wearing a fluffy jacket, is flocking social media platforms, TikTok is making a move to join other top companies to label such content. As seen on screenshots shared by social media consultant Matt Navarra, TikTok creators need to disclose any AI content that shows realistic scenes. According to this new guideline, “Labels help others know the difference between real and fictional content.”

TikTok now let’s you add AI-generated content labels to your videos 🤖

And warns you must disclose AI-generated content

Or risk having your content taken down pic.twitter.com/SgCqPnDjkS
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) August 8, 2023

As per the screenshots, it appears that the new toggle is added under “content disclosure and ads.” AI-generated content that is not labeled would be taken down by TikTok. However, TikTok didn’t specify what it meant by “realistic scenes.”

Last March, TikTok banned all realistic AI deep fakes of nonpublic figures and/or public figures endorsing products. That was the time when many AI images and videos of popular figures doing unexpected scenarios. So, policies are already in place for deep fake content. It could be that this new guideline would cover other synthetic media that are almost identical to real ones.

More AI watermarking systems

This new TikTok moderation policy on AI content isn’t the only crack down happening on social media. Instagram is also working on its own AI disclosure labels.

Google also announced that its new feature launching this summer, which makes it easier for users to identify AI-generated images. This measure will hopefully help combat against the spread of misinformation, which has been only made worse by AI-generated content.