(Credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
TikTok is seeing an influx of AI-generated videos showing racist stereotypes. They all appear to be generated by Google’s recently launched Veo 3 tool, which can produce detailed AI videos.
Spotted by nonprofit watchdog Media Matters, a new report shares examples of the racist clips, which were all uploaded to TikTok as individual short clips. Media Matters put together many of clips on YouTube with further context about each one.
Many of the racist stereotypes depicted are negative toward Black people in the United States, showing them as monkeys, absent parents, or criminals.
Other videos include antisemitic tropes, while some clips specifically target immigrants. Media Matters also found clips online referring to historical traumas, such as the Holocaust and the Ku Klux Klan's attacks on Black Americans. Be aware that the video below includes racist content that readers may find distressing.
The clips are designed to outrage users, encourage reactions, and therefore reach more people through TikTok's algorithm.
Exactly how these clips were produced remains unclear, but evidence points to Google's new Veo 3. The clips are all eight seconds long, which is the current time limit on video production in Veo 3. Some of the clips also have the word Veo in the bottom-right corner.
Media Matters also found multiple references to Veo 3 across the clips, with some using it within the captions or hashtags, while others included Veo in the account's username. Many of the clips also have mistakes associated with AI within the captions.
A spokesperson for TikTok told The Verge, “We proactively enforce robust rules against hateful speech and behavior and have removed the accounts we identified in the report, many of which were already banned prior to the [Media Matters] report publishing.”
TikTok's community guidelines say, “We do not allow any hate speech, hateful behavior, or promotion of hateful ideologies. This includes explicit or implicit content that attacks a protected group.”
However, these videos aren't just limited to TikTok. The Verge found some examples of the videos being viewable on YouTube, while different racist AI-generated videos were found on Instagram by Wired.
AI-generated hate speech may be the next big content moderation battleground for the world's biggest social networks and video hosting platforms. If you spot videos that you believe show racist stereotypes or other harmful content, be sure to report them.