TikTok Announces Automatic AI-Generated Content Labeling for Third-Party Platforms
In a significant move announced on Thursday, TikTok revealed that it will now automatically label content generated by AI on other platforms. This new feature means that videos created using services such as OpenAI’s DALL·E 3 will bear an “AI-generated” label, to inform viewers that the content originated from artificial intelligence.
This update is facilitated through the integration of Content Credentials, a technology developed by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), an organization co-founded by industry giants Microsoft and Adobe. Content Credentials work by embedding specific metadata into the content, enabling TikTok to recognize and appropriately label AI-generated media with immediate effect.
The automatic labeling process will begin on Thursday and will be gradually rolled out to all users worldwide over the next few weeks. This initiative extends TikTok’s existing practice of labeling AI-generated content created with its own AI effects, to include content from other platforms that have adopted Content Credentials technology—such as OpenAI’s DALL·E 3 and Microsoft’s Bing Image Creator.
Moreover, while Microsoft, Adobe, and OpenAI are already implementing the Content Credentials system, Google has also committed to supporting this initiative.
By doing so, TikTok aims to promote greater transparency and help users easily identify AI-generated content across the platform.
Tiktok, which already mandates creators to disclose AI-enhanced content, informed TechCrunch of a new initiative to further ensure AI-generated content is adequately labeled, alleviating some of the burden from creators.
In the upcoming months, TikTok will introduce Content Credentials for AI-generated content produced using TikTok AI effects. This metadata will encapsulate information regarding the creation or modification of the content through AI, and it will remain embedded even when the content is downloaded. Other platforms that integrate Content Credentials will be able to effortlessly identify and label such content as AI-generated.
While TikTok has pledged to mark AI content on its own platform, it is also striving to ensure accurate labeling when AI content created on TikTok is shared across other platforms.
“AI-generated content offers a remarkable avenue for creativity, but transparency for the audience is essential,” Adam Presser, TikTok’s Head of Operations and Trust & Safety, said in a press release. “By collaborating with industry counterparts to label content across platforms, we are enabling creators to responsibly explore AI-generated content while simultaneously discouraging harmful or deceptive AIGC that TikTok prohibits.”
TikTok claims it is the first video-sharing platform to implement Content Credentials. It is notable that Meta announced in February its intention to enhance content provenance through the C2PA’s solution.
In conjunction with Thursday’s announcement, TikTok reiterated its commitment to combatting the misuse of deceptive AI in elections and emphasized that its policies strictly ban harmfully misleading AI-generated content—whether labeled or not.
