As generative AI is taking the social media world by storm with song mashups, TikTok is looking to disclose content that has been AI-generated.
A new report from The Information suggests TikTok is internally working on a tool to allow content creators to disclose whether content was made using generative AI. Song mashups like the Drake/The Weeknd collabs that have gone viral on TikTok use generative AI to create music that ‘sounds’ like these two artists mashed together. Right now, it’s unclear how this disclosure will take place.
It could be as innocuous as the current sponsorship disclosure, letting viewers know they’re viewing AI-generated content. It’s also unclear if TikTok will require the disclosure on AI-generated content or if it’s just a suggestion for content creators as a way for TikTok to try and avoid liability for any AI-generated content that isn’t marked as such.
“At TikTok we believe that trust forms the foundation of our community—and we are always working to advance transparency and help viewers better understand the content they see,” a TikTok spokesperson said about the report.
AI-generated content is cropping up across TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, and many other platforms. Midjourney can be used to create album art now, while platforms like Podcastle can train a sound generation model on just a few minutes of input. The possibility for training ‘AI artists’ based on real artists is something Grimes is ready to experience—but not everyone shares her optimistic outlook.
Universal Music has gone to bat for Drake and The Weeknd, asking DSPs to keep these AI-generated mashups off the services. Meanwhile, UMG is still playing whack-a-mole on YouTube as copies of generated songs are uploaded faster than they can be ripped down. A marketplace to store AI-generated content has even sprung up that says it aims to take music back to the ‘Napster era‘ with a place to house AI-generated music that can’t be ripped down.