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TikTok is now automatically labeling AI-generated content made on external platforms, potentially thwarting misinformation campaigns.
The social media giant is using the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity’s (C2PA) Content Credentials technology to flag AI-made images and videos made using third-party tools. Audio-only material will receive labels “soon,” TikTok said.
TikTok also said it will add Content Credentials to output from its own AI effects generator, making it harder to spread fakes to other platforms. The company already labels effects for its own users, and has required creators to label realistic AI-produced material for the past year.
The firm cautioned that it may take a while for automatically labeled AI content to become commonplace on TikTok as it’s the first video sharing platform to make such a move. This should get easier as other social networks adopt the technology.
TikTok simultaneously unveiled plans for a media literacy campaign to help users spot AI and avoid falling for misinformation. It planned to release a dozen videos across the year to teach media literacy skills, while another initiative would produce a video series around AI labelling and misinformation awareness.
The AI labeling system comes at a critical time. There are widespread concerns countries like China and Russia might use AI to manipulate elections, and companies like Midjourney are even blocking the creation of images that include U.S. presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump. TikTok is theoretically making it difficult for bad actors to produce fake stories elsewhere and slip them into users’ feeds.
It also arrives soon after President Biden signed a bill into law requiring that ByteDance either sell TikTok within a year or risk a ban. Politicians are worried ByteDance might be compelled by the Chinese government to either snoop on TikTok user data or skew algorithms to influence public opinion. TikTok has sued the U.S. government arguing that the bill violates First Amendment free speech rights.
