TikTok is planning to introduce an AI chatbot named “Genie” to its Western users, according to recent filings in the U.S. The Genie chatbot will offer various functions such as simulating conversations, facilitating communication between humans and AI, and producing human-like speech and text. The chatbot aims to connect users to different elements of the TikTok app, making it more of a hub for AI functionalities.
TikTok has already been developing its AI chatbot for some time, with the “Tako” chatbot being previously available to users in the Philippines. Unlike the Genie chatbot, Tako was designed primarily to guide users to other videos in the app, not to answer complex queries.
The Genie chatbot will incorporate TikTok’s latest AI advancements, including its generative AI search function, which is already available in Douyin, the Chinese version of the app. This feature enables users to maximize discovery both within and outside the app by generating answers to queries based on intelligent search technology.
Other potential features of the Genie chatbot could include TikTok’s StreamVoice system, which simulates a person’s voice based on a few utterances, as well as AI music generation and text-to-video creation tools. By integrating these tools into the Genie chatbot, users would find it easier to access TikTok’s various functionalities.
Meta has already pushed its AI chatbot across all its apps, but TikTok’s offering could differ in its focus on functional discovery and making it easier for users to try out the various AI tools. It remains to be seen whether the Genie chatbot will be more valuable to users compared to Meta’s current AI offerings. TikTok may reveal more details about the Genie chatbot soon, as it moves towards activating the bot.
