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TikTok to start labeling AI-generated content
TikTok will begin labeling content created using artificial intelligence when it’s been uploaded from outside its own platform in an attempt to combat misinformation.
“AI enables incredible creative opportunities, but can confuse or mislead viewers if they don’t know content was AI-generated,” the company said in a prepared statement Thursday. “Labeling helps make that context clear—which is why we label AIGC made with TikTok AI effects, and have required creators to label realistic AIGC for over a year.”
TikTok’s shift in policy is part of an broader attempt in the technology industry to provide more safeguards for AI usage. In February Meta announced that it was working with industry partners on technical standards that will make it easier to identify images and eventually video and audio generated by artificial intelligence tools. Users on Facebook and Instagram users would see labels on AI-generated images.
Google said last year that AI labels are coming to YouTube and its other platforms.
A push for digital watermarking and labeling of AI-generated content was also part of an executive order that U.S. President Joe Biden signed in October.
TikTok is teaming up with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity and will use their Content Credentials technology.
The company said that the technology can attach metadata to content, which it can use to instantly recognize and label AI-generated content. TikTok said it began to deploy the technology Thursday on images and videos and will be coming to audio-only content soon.
In coming months, Content Credentials will be attached to submissions made on TikTok, which will remain on the content when downloaded. This will help identify AI-generated material that’s made on TikTok and help people learn when, where and how the content was made or edited. Other platforms that adopt Content Credentials will be able to automatically label it.
“Using Content Credentials as a way to identify and convey synthetic media to audiences directly is a meaningful step towards AI transparency, even more so than typical watermarking techniques,” Claire Leibowicz, head of the AI and Media Integrity Program at the Partnership on AI, said in a prepared statement. “At the same time we need to better understand how users react to these labels and hope that TikTok reports on the response so that we may better understand how the public navigates an increasingly AI-augmented world.”
TikTok said it’s the first video-sharing platform to put the credentials into practice and will join the Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative to help push the adoption of the credentials within the industry.
“TikTok is the first social media platform to support Content Credentials, and with over 170 million users in the United States alone, their platform and their vast community of creators and users are an essential piece of that chain of trust needed to increase transparency online,” Dana Rao, Adobe’s executive vice president, general counsel and chief trust officer, said in a blog post.
TikTok’s policy in the past has been to encourage users to label content that has been generated or significantly edited by AI. It also requires users to label all AI-generated content where it contains realistic images, audio, and video.
“Our users and our creators are so excited about AI and what it can do for their creativity and their ability to connect with audiences.” Adam Presser, TikTok’s Head of Operations & Trust and Safety told ABC News. “And at the same time, we want to make sure that people have that ability to understand what fact is and what is fiction.”
The announcement initially came on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday.
TikTok’s AI actions come just two days after TikTok said that it and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, had filed a lawsuit challenging a new American law that would ban the video-sharing app in the U.S. unless it’s sold to an approved buyer, saying it unfairly singles out the platform and is an unprecedented attack on free speech.
The lawsuit is the latest turn in what’s shaping up to be a protracted legal fight over TikTok’s future in the United States — and one that could end up before the Supreme Court. If TikTok loses, it says it would be forced to shut down next year.
Bank of England edges closer to rate cut, possibly in June
LONDON | The Bank of England maintained its key U.K. interest rate at a 16-year high of 5.25% though it gave a broad hint that a reduction could be on the cards as soon as June as inflation is forecast to fall below target.
In a statement Thursday, the bank’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-2 to keep rates unchanged, with the 2 dissenters backing a quarter-point reduction. Last time, only one member voted for a quarter-point cut.
Like the U.S. Federal Reserve last week, which also kept rates, on hold the majority on the panel wanted to see more evidence that inflation is under control.
The increase in the number of those backing a U.K. rate reduction is a clear indication that there is a shifting balance on the committee in favor of cuts.
“We’ve had encouraging news on inflation and we think it will fall close to our 2% target in the next couple of months,” said Bank Gov. Andrew Bailey. “We need to see more evidence that inflation will stay low before we can cut interest rates. I’m optimistic that things are moving in the right direction.”
Bailey indicated that the financial markets are more pessimistic about the path of interest rates and that “it is likely that we’ll need to cut bank rates in the coming quarters, possibly more so than is currently priced into markets.”
However, he said a cut at the next meeting in June has “not been ruled out” but insisted that it was “not a fait accompli.”
Headline inflation in the U.K. is down at an annual rate of 3.2%, its lowest level in two and a half years, but remains higher than the bank’s 2% target.
In forecasts accompanying its decision, the Bank of England said it expects inflation to fall below the target between April and June, but rise again to 2.6% in the second half of this year as the impact of recent drops in energy prices fades.
Longer-term, it said it expects inflation to fall more than previously thought over the coming years to 1.5% in 2026. Given that it sets policy to target inflation months and years ahead, that’s a further hint that rates will be cut soon.
That was certainly the view in financial markets, where the British pound fell against other currencies. It was down 0.4% against the dollar, for example, at $1.2450 in the immediate aftermath of the decision as traders priced in the prospect of lower returns on holding pounds.
The Bank of England, like the U.S. Fed and other central banks around the world, raised interest rates aggressively in late 2021 from near zero to counter price rises first stoked by supply chain issues during the coronavirus pandemic and then by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Higher interest rates — which cool the economy by making it more expensive to borrow — have helped ease inflation, but they’ve also weighed on the British economy, which is barely growing.
“The decision to keep interest rates on hold, while expected, is a missed opportunity to provide much needed relief for those people struggling with their mortgage bills and businesses facing numerous cost pressures,” said Suren Thiru, economics director at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Lawmakers in the U.K.’s governing Conservative Party, which appears headed for a big electoral defeat later this year to the Labour Party, is hoping the independent Bank of England starts cutting soon, relieving the pressure on financially-stretched households, thereby helping to fuel an economic feelgood factor.
“What we want is sustainably low interest rates, and I think what’s encouraging is that the Bank of England governor, for the first time, has expressed real optimism that we’re on that path,” said Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt.
Activist investor wins three Norfolk Southern board seats
Norfolk Southern’s CEO will be under more pressure to improve profits after the railroad’s shareholders voted Thursday to elect three of the board members an activist investor nominated, but he won’t be fired right away.
Ancora Holdings had nominated seven directors as part of a bid to take control of the railroad’s 13-member board and overhaul its operations. The key support Ancora picked up from major investors, two major rail unions and proxy advisory firms wasn’t enough to persuade shareholders to elect Ancora’s entire slate.
Ancora executive Jim Chadwick blamed passive investors for failing to support the investors’ nominees. Chadwick promised to hold CEO Alan Shaw accountable and keep fighting to improve the railroad.
“For the passive investors: If anything should go wrong here and there’s another derailment and people die, this is on you,” Chadwick said. “You ignored the recommendation of the proxy advisors, the unions, the largest customer of the company. You gave us literally no support and we still won three board seats without you. What happens at Norfolk Southern now is on your firms and your conscience.”
The Norfolk Southern board members voted out included Chair Amy Miles.
Norfolk Southern’s stock price, which soared after Ancora announced its campaign to oust Shaw, immediately fell after the results of the vote were announced and finished Thursday down 2.5% at $226.33.
Shaw had argued that Ancora’s plan would cut the railroad too deep and jeopardize the improvements in safety and service Norfolk Southern has made since its disastrous February 2023 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Shaw’s plan calls for keeping more workers on hand during a downturn to make sure the railroad is prepared to handle the eventual rebound in shipments once the economy recovers and continuing to invest in safety improvements to prevent derailments. He received the backing of the rest of rail labor, several key regulators and a number of the railroad’s customers.
“Norfolk Southern has persevered through several challenges over the last year. We have met every challenge and never lost sight of where we are taking our powerful franchise,” Shaw said. “We are keeping our promises and delivering tangible results, and there is more to do.”
Ancora had argued that Norfolk Southern should implement the industry standard Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model that is designed to minimize the number of workers, locomotives and railcars a railroad needs.
The Precision Scheduled Railroad operating model relies on running fewer, longer trains on a tighter schedule and switching cars between trains less often to streamline operations.
Rail unions have said they believe Precision Scheduled Railroading has made the industry more dangerous and derailments more likely because inspections are so rushed and preventative maintenance may be neglected.
So the unions that backed Shaw celebrated shareholders’ decision to turn back this attack from “corporate raiders” that would have put pressure on all the major railroads to double down on dangerous cost cuts.
‘Today all railroaders can be assured that the progress they have witnessed in their quality of life, and the security they and their families count on from their paychecks are no longer at dire risk,” said Jeremy Ferguson, president of the SMART-TD union that represents conductors and is the single largest rail union.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union that backed Ancora encouraged Shaw to keep improving safety and consider adopting some of the proposals the investors made to expand the railroad’s pilot program to let workers use an anonymous federal safety hotline to report concerns and abandon all talk of trying to cut train crews down to one person.
The leaders of the BLET union on Norfolk Southern — Dewayne Dehart, Jerry Sturdivant and Scott Bunten — said they were alarmed when Shaw said this spring that he would also implement a version of Precision Scheduled Railroading.
“Alan Shaw and his team showed real leadership after the East Palestine disaster and made major moves to make the railroad safer and more competitive,” the BLET union officials said. “However, changes in his team and strategy in recent weeks left many stakeholders and shareholders feeling uncertain about the railroad’s future direction.”
For now, Shaw and the chief operating officer he just hired in March, John Orr, will have more time to prove their strategy will work. NS paid CPKC railroad $25 million to get permission to hire Orr. But if they don’t bring Norfolk Southern’s profit margins in line with the rest of the industry, their jobs could still be in jeopardy.
“Your CEO has missed earnings estimates for six quarters in a row and destroyed a town in our own state,” said Chadwick, whose firm is based in Ohio. “And if this underperformance continues, we will hold you accountable. But we will work with you for the mutual benefit of all stakeholders.”
Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau said it’s clear Ancora is going to keep up the pressure on Shaw, and if results don’t improve then the investors may nominate additional directors next year to try to take control of the board.
Yale University management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld said Ancora will have an inconsequential minority on the board that won’t be able to push through major changes. He noted Ancora could have saved millions of dollars that it spent on the proxy campaign if it had just accepted a settlement the railroad offered weeks ago that would have given the investors three seats on the board.
Ancora had projected their plan would cut more than $800 million in expenses in the first year and another $275 million by the end of three years. Ancora said it didn’t plan layoffs, but wanted to use attrition to eliminate about 1,500 jobs over time.
Norfolk Southern has said its own plan to make the railroad more efficient will generate about $400 million in cost savings over two years and improve its profit margin. But analysts have said its profits might still lag behind the other major freight railroads because they are all working to get more efficient too.
U.S. weekly jobless claims hit highest level since 2023
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped to its highest level in more than eight months last week, another indication that the red hot U.S. labor market may be softening.
Unemployment claims for the week ending May 4 rose by 22,000 to 231,000, up from 209,000 the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Though last week’s claims were the most since the final week of August 2023, it’s still a relatively low number of layoffs and not cause for concern.
The four-week average of claims, which softens some of the weekly volatility, rose by 4,750 to 215,000.
Weekly unemployment claims are considered a proxy for the number of U.S. layoffs in a given week and a sign of where the job market is headed. They have remained at historically low levels since the pandemic purge of millions of jobs in the spring of 2020.
Last month, U.S. employers added just 175,000 jobs, the fewest in six months and another sign that the labor market may be loosening. The unemployment rate inched back up to 3.9% from 3.8% and has now remained below 4% for 27 straight months, the longest such streak since the 1960s.
The government also recently reported 8.5 million job openings in March, the lowest number of vacancies in three years.
Moderation in the pace of hiring, along with a slowdown in wage growth could give the Fed the data its been seeking in order to finally issue a cut to interest rates.
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark borrowing rate 11 times beginning in March of 2022 in a bid to stifle the four-decade high inflation that took hold after the economy rebounded from the COVID-19 recession of 2020. The Fed’s intention was to loosen the labor market and cool wage growth, which can fuel inflation.
Many economists thought there was a chance the rapid rate hikes could cause a recession, but jobs have remained plentiful and the economy forged on thanks to strong spending by U.S. consumers.
Though layoffs remain at low levels, companies have been announcing more job cuts recently, mostly across technology and media. Google parent company Alphabet, Apple and eBay have all recently announced layoffs.
Outside of tech and media, Peloton, Stellantis, Nike and Tesla have recently announced job cuts.
In total, 1.79 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits during the week that ended April 27. That’s up 17,000 from the previous week.
—From AP reports
