TikTok accidentally posted a link to an internal version of its new AI-powered digital avatar tool with no guardrails, allowing users to create videos talking about anything. the The hiccups were first spotted by CNN It allowed the outlet to create videos containing quotes from Hitler and a message asking people to drink bleach, among other phrases. TikTok has since discontinued this version of the tool, while the version TikTok intended to launch remains available.
It was launched earlier this weekTik Tok Symphony of digital avatars Allowing businesses to create ads using what look like paid actors. It also uses AI-powered dubbing, which allows advertisers to enter text to make their avatars say what they want within TikTok’s guidelines. Although only users with a TikTok Ads Manager account can access this tool, the version found by CNN allows anyone with a personal account to try.
In a statement to the edgeTikTok has resolved the “technical bug” that “allowed a very small number of users to create content using an internal test version of the tool for a few days,” TikTok spokeswoman Laura Perez said.
When CNN discovered the internal tool, it allowed the channel to create videos reciting Osama bin Laden’s “Message to America,” a white supremacist slogan, and a video asking people to vote on the wrong day. None of the videos produced by CNN had a watermark revealing that the video was generated by artificial intelligence, something the proper version of TikTok’s Symphony Digital Avatars does.
CNN did not publish the videos it created on TikTok, but Perez points out that had it done so, “the content would have been rejected for violating our policies.” Although TikTok has since retired that version of its tool, it calls into question whether people will find other ways to abuse the digital avatar creator — and whether TikTok is ready for it.