TikTok‘s AI Overviews is singing the blues. The feature, which was in testing, was supposed to generate text summaries beneath video posts on the app. But due to numerous egregious inaccuracies in the AI-generated descriptions — including one mistaking a celebrity content creator for blueberries — TikTok has scaled back the test. A TikTok spokesperson told Business Insider that the updated feature will now only identify products shown in a video, not offer the sometimes-bizarre summaries.
A TikTok representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
TikTok’s AI Overviews feature was similar to the AI summaries Google uses in its search algorithm. It was supposed to explain what’s happening in video posts and provide additional context. It succeeded only some of the time.
The Business Insider reporter documented firsthand experience with TikTok’s AI Overviews, citing a collection of incorrect summaries. The feature described a video of TikTok personality Charli D’Amelio talking to the camera as “a collection of various blueberries with different toppings.” And it called a video from the singer Shakira “a repetitive sequence of several distinct blue shapes appearing and moving across the screen.”
Many TikTok users on Reddit were dissatisfied with the feature. One Reddit post shows a screenshot of a video featuring two ballroom dancers. The AI caption identified the visual as “a person repeatedly striking their head with a rubber chicken.”
AI-generated overviews have come a long way since they first began appearing online. Just a few years ago, Google faced a similar set of accuracy problems when its algorithm suggested eating one rock per day and using glue to keep cheese on pizza.
TikTok isn’t backing away from AI. The company recently rolled out a tool that converts an image to a video, and another that lets you control how much AI content appears on your For You Page. It has also addressed safety issues that come with implementing AI on its platform by releasing moderation tools.
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