ByteDance upgrades AI tool to identify vulgar content on news app Jinri Toutiao
- The AI tool called Lingquan has already been adopted by more than three million Toutiao users and content producers
ByteDance, the world’s most valuable technology start-up, has launched an updated artificial intelligence (AI) tool to better identify violent and sexual content on its popular news aggregation app, Jinri Toutiao, amid Beijing’s efforts to clean up the internet in China.
The AI tool called Lingquan, which roughly translates to “dogs with good sense of smell”, has already been adopted by more than three million of Jinri Toutiao’s regular users and content producers, providing them with “health scores” on the stories, text or videos they create for the app’s newsfeed.
Sometimes, these creators are not aware that they have produced vulgar content, according to Wang Changhu, a director at ByteDance’s AI Lab, at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday. His comments from the conference were confirmed by a company spokeswoman on Wednesday.
Known officially as Lingquan 3.0, the AI tool is also expected to help raise public awareness against content deemed as inappropriate by Chinese regulators.
Lingquan would also be used as a way to gather public opinion and suggestions about how to combat vulgar content, according to Wang.