Are you tired of endlessly scrolling through AI-generated content on your social media feeds? TikTok is shaking things up by giving users the power to control how much AI-made content they see. But here’s where it gets controversial: as the platform reveals it hosts a staggering 1.3 billion AI-generated videos, it’s also sparking a debate about the balance between innovation and user experience. Let’s dive in.
In a move that’s both bold and timely, TikTok is testing a new feature over the next few weeks that will allow users to adjust the amount of AI-generated content in their feeds. This comes at a moment when tools like OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Veo 3 are flooding the internet with AI-created videos. And this is the part most people miss: while AI content can be fascinating—think digital art or science explainers—it’s also led to a surge in what’s being called “AI slop”—low-quality, often nonsensical videos that dominate some of the fastest-growing YouTube channels. According to The Guardian, nearly one in ten of these channels exclusively features AI-generated content.
TikTok’s European director of public policy for safety and privacy, Jade Nester, explains, ‘We want to give people the power to see more or less AI-generated content based on their preferences.’ This shift was announced at TikTok’s annual European Trust and Safety Forum in Dublin, where the platform also highlighted its daily upload numbers: over 100 million pieces of content, with AI-generated videos making up a relatively small but significant portion.
Here’s how it works: users can tweak their feed by opening the ‘Manage Topics’ setting and selecting ‘AI-Generated Content.’ This feature joins existing filters for topics like current affairs, fashion, beauty, and dance. But here’s the kicker: TikTok is also introducing an ‘AI-Made’ watermark for content created with its own tools or flagged by the C2PA initiative, an industry effort to identify AI-generated material. This move aims to prevent creators from bypassing labeling requirements, which are already mandatory for ‘realistic’ AI content under TikTok’s guidelines.
TikTok isn’t stopping there. The platform is launching a $2 million AI Literacy Fund to support organizations like Girls Who Code in creating educational content about responsible AI use. But here’s where it gets even more controversial: this initiative comes amid backlash over TikTok’s plan to cut 439 content moderator jobs in London, with critics arguing that AI moderation is replacing human oversight. Brie Pegum, TikTok’s global head of program management for trust and safety, counters that AI can actually protect human moderators by filtering out the most distressing content before they see it. She notes a 76% decrease in such content reaching human moderators over the past year thanks to automated systems.
So, what do you think? Is TikTok striking the right balance between AI innovation and user control? Or is this just another step toward an AI-dominated online world? Let us know in the comments—we’d love to hear your thoughts!
