Description: TikTok accidentally released an internal version of its AI digital avatar tool without safeguards, allowing users to generate videos where avatars could recite harmful content, including quotes from Hitler. The tool, meant for advertisers, was accessible to personal accounts and lacked the watermark indicating AI-generated content. TikTok has since removed the tool and acknowledged the problem.
Editor Notes: Timeline notes: TikTok released TikTok Symphony on June 17, 2024. On June 21, 2024, CNN reported the problems associated with it.
Entities
View all entitiesIncident Stats
Risk Subdomain
A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
1.2. Exposure to toxic content
Risk Domain
The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
- Discrimination and Toxicity
Entity
Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
Human
Timing
The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
Post-deployment
Intent
Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Unintentional
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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TikTok mistakenly posted a link to an internal version of its new AI digital avatar tool without guardrails, letting users create videos that say just about anything. The hiccup was first spotted by CNN and allowed the outlet to generate vi…
TikTok mistakenly released a version of its AI video generator that let avatars recite Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” on command.
Last week, TikTok announced its new tool “Symphony Digital Avatars” which…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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