Finji, the publisher behind indie hits like Tunic and Night in the Woods, has accused social media platform TikTok of creating "racist" and "sexist" generative AI ads for its games without its permission.
As reported by IGN, Finji first became aware of these ads through comments on its non-AI ads from concerned fans. One ad reportedly depicts the protagonist of Finji's game Usual June, a Black woman, in a way that, in IGN's words, seemingly "invokes a harmful stereotype".
Creatives and businesses on TikTok can choose to opt into a program called Smart Creative, which essentially grants TikTok permission to remix their content and ads with generative AI. You've probably already guessed this, but Finji's account had this option resolutely switched off.
Needless to say, Finji CEO Rebekah Saltsman raised this issue with TikTok's support center, and what follows can only be described as a descent into Kafkaesque absurdity.
At first, TikTok seems supportive, with a support agent pledging to "raise a ticket" to alert the relevant teams to what's going on. Following that, however, Finji and Saltsman received a response claiming that there was no "indication" of generative AI being used for the ads in question.
Naturally, a...
