• by Colin Kirkland , September 20, 2023

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent in content on social-media platforms, TikTok has decided to “support transparent and responsible content creation practices” by launching creator-made labels and testing automated labels for AI-generated content in the app.

“AI enables incredible creative opportunities, but can potentially confuse or mislead viewers if they’re not aware content was generated or edited with AI,” TikTok wrote in its announcement. “Labeling helps address this, by making clear to viewers when content is significantly altered or modified by AI technology.”

Creators on TikTok will now be able to use labels not only to warn users about AI alterations, but to “showcase the innovations behind their content,” according to TikTok.

The company added that the labels will make it easier for creators to comply with its Community Guidelines synthetic media policy.

Introduced earlier this year, the policy requires users to self-label AI-generated content containing realistic images, audio or video to help prevent the spread of misleading content.

TikTok also said it will release educational videos and resources to help its community learn how and why to use these new labels in the coming weeks.

In addition to the launch of creator-made labels and testing of an automated label, the ByteDance-owned company is renaming TikTok AI effects to explicitly include “AI” in the name, updating the guidelines for its AR Effect House as well.

TikTok is the first social-media platform to officially add a specific AI-generated tag.

“It's really important that platforms develop effective labeling policies,” commented MIT AI-label expert David G. Rand in a TikTok blog post. “We have found that across different demographic groups globally, the term ‘AI generated’ is widely understood as applying to content that is generated by AI.”