SINGAPORE: TikTok is set to introduce “Genie,” an innovative AI chatbot designed to enhance user interaction and functionality within its platform, targeting Western audiences. The announcement follows TikTok’s recent filing for a US trademark for the name “Genie”.
According to reports from Semafor, Genie will offer more than just standard Q&A capabilities. Users will be able to engage directly within video streams, receiving real-time assistance and potentially unlocking new interactive features seamlessly.
“In May in the US, the viral video app filed to trademark the name ‘Genie’ for an AI chatbot software that will, among other functions, simulate conversations, facilitate interaction and communication between humans and AI, and produce human-like speech and text,” stated Semafor.
This marks a significant evolution from TikTok’s earlier experiments with “Tako,” a search-oriented chatbot trialed in the Philippines. Genie promises to integrate TikTok’s advanced generative AI, similar to Douyin’s (China’s TikTok) functionality.
Moreover, Genie is expected to leverage emerging AI technologies such as TikTok’s generative AI for creating virtual live-streamers and its “StreamVoice” system, which can generate natural-sounding voices based on short audio samples.
Additionally, TikTok’s ongoing developments in AI-powered music generation and text-to-video tools are likely to be seamlessly integrated into Genie, providing users with novel creative capabilities directly within their chat interactions.
Unlike Meta’s AI assistant, which focuses primarily on text summarization across platforms, TikTok’s approach with Genie appears geared towards enhancing user engagement and empowering users to explore and utilize TikTok’s extensive feature set more effectively.
