TikTok to Automatically Label Uploaded AI-Generated Content

TikTok has begun automatically labeling artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content (AIGC) when that content is uploaded from certain other platforms.

The social media platform has done this by partnering with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) and implementing that group’s Content Credentials technology, TikTok said in a Thursday (May 9) press release.

“AI enables incredible creative opportunities but can confuse or mislead viewers if they don’t know content was AI-generated,” the company said in the release. “Labeling helps make that context clear — which is why we label AIGC made with TikTok AI effects and have required creators to label realistic AIGC for over a year.”

With its implementation of Content Credentials, TikTok can read the metadata that technology attaches to content and instantly recognize and label AIGC, according to the release. This capability is now being rolled out on images and videos and it will soon be expanded to audio-only content as well.

In the coming months, TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content made on its platform, the release said. That will enable anyone to use C2PA’s Verify tool to help identify AIGC and will allow other platforms that adopt Content Credentials to automatically label that content.

As well as implementing the Content Credentials technology, TikTok also said Thursday that it launched new media literacy resources to help the platform’s users navigate AIGC and misinformation online.

Developed by TikTok with guidance from MediaWise and Witness, these resources will include videos designed to raise awareness around AI labeling and AIGC and to explain how TikTok tools can further contextualize content, per the release.

“As AI evolves, we continue to invest in combatting harmful AIGC by evolving our proactive detection models, consulting with experts and partnering with peers on shared solutions,” TikTok said in the release.

C2PA was founded by Adobe, Arm, Intel, Microsoft, Truepic and other companies to create technical standards to certify the source and provenance of content.

The group was launched at a time when the capabilities of generative AI are advancing and producing images and media that are becoming more realistic and harder to identify as being AI-generated.