In case you haven’t noticed, AI-generated content is everywhere. It’s all over our Top 50 charts, hiding behind creator-uploaded videos, and filling feeds on new apps launched by OpenAI and Meta.
With all of those machine-made videos floating around, some consumers are feeling a sense of AI fatigue, and TikTok is doing something about it. The ByteDance-owned app is testing a feature that lets users control how many AI-generated items make it onto the For You Page.
The new toggle can be found in the “manage topics” section of the TikTok app, where viewers already had the ability to adjust how frequently certain topics show up on their feeds. To empower its community even further, TikTok is adding an AI slider to that virtual control room. If you hate AI-generated videos, you don’t have to see them at all — at least in theory.
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
In practice, TikTok will only be able to limit exposure to AI videos if it can properly identify those uploads. That’s why the app’s partnership with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) is so important. Last year, TikTok became the first major social platform to adopt the C2PA’s Content Credentials. Those labels can “instantly recognize” AI-generated content, even as it moves from one platform to another.
As part of its latest update, TikTok is testing “invisible watermarking” that will improve its ability to recognize AI content. The goal, as explained in a Newsroom post, is to maintain C2PA-style labels even as AI videos are doctored, reuploaded, and moved around the internet.
That’s a significant technological undertaking, but if successful, it will allow TikTok to support its broader goal of mental health support. AI is a divisive topic, so TikTok is trying to give everyone the videos that will make them happiest — without forcing users on the other side of the aisle to follow suit.
Other new features on the app are dedicated to mindfulness practices like journaling and breathwork. The For You Page might not be the first place you think of when you think of a zen experience, but TikTok is trying to link its feed to positive emotional affect.
