Navigating the Content Moderation- AI vs Human Approaches
Have you ever wondered how social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube manage to process millions of daily posts, comments, photos, and videos that are uploaded? It is done through the collaboration of human and automated content moderators.
UGC, also known as user-generated content, has brought about a few new rules, compelling businesses to adopt content moderation to control all brand-related information posted online.
In this article, we will compare content moderation carried out by a content moderation company using artificial intelligence (AI) and by humans, along with its advantages and disadvantages.
Automated Moderation: An Overview
A content moderation company makes use of AI-powered content moderation to accelerate the process of evaluating the content, which is crucial in a continuously growing UGC sector. AI content moderation is done with algorithms, natural language processing, computer vision, and built-in knowledge bases. They disable the IP address of specific users (flagged for inappropriate behavior) using automated moderation.
Human content moderation is a procedure of manually monitoring and filtering user-generated content and removing offensive, fraudulent, or illegal material. As automated tools cannot evaluate large datasets and judge specific contents, human help is still required for content moderation.
Human vs AI Content Moderation
Let’s delve deeper into the distinctions between AI and human content moderation:
Cost
The cost of maintaining a moderation staff increases exponentially as the volume of content increases. When the data upload increases, the greater the need for human moderators to process it. AI algorithms can alleviate the moderation team’s workload with excellent scalability. AI enables your business to offer additional services without increasing manpower, thereby reducing operating expenses.
Scalability
Human moderators will be unable to manage the volume of online content shared daily. According to a report, every minute:
- 1.7 million items are posted on Facebook
- 66,000 images are published on Instagram
- 500 video hours are uploaded to YouTube
Considering the huge online interactions, humans will always need help to keep up.
AI algorithms are designed to scale effectively. They process content quicker than human beings, enabling platforms to reduce or eliminate moderation backlogs. In terms of pace and volume, humans cannot outperform AI.
Bias
Humans are always inclined to their interests and concerns. Even when there are distinct guidelines, most of the time, what a person considers destructive may be acceptable to another. A classic example is how frequently Wikipedia gets caught in controversy whenever the content is removed or altered based on the editor’s personal preferences.
But AI is distinct in regards to this. It will never act biased in any way. So, if a system is programmed to carry out particular actions, it performs its designated work consistently. However, the absence of different kinds of representation while training the AI systems may cause biased outcomes. One more instance is when bias is liable to happen during the construction or execution of an AI system if developers make declarations about what is expected and what is normal kind of behavior. Therefore, to make AI perform effectively without causing any bias, we have to:
- Provide diverse data
- Evaluate and monitor the AI for bias
- Possess a transparent development process
Risks
One of the primary purposes of content moderation is to protect service users from damage. By exposing human moderators to hazardous content, they are also at risk of getting PTSD.
On the other hand, AI is automated and highly capable of recognizing and eliminating this type of detrimental content without exposing or without any help from humans. Therefore, AI is safer to use and protects mankind.
Context
Context is where humans have an advantage over AI. The human brain is capable of processing content simultaneously to make an accurate evaluation. Thus, in every circumstance, humans will be able to outperform AI moderation systems that were used a few years ago.
With the introduction of multimodal AI algorithms, the scenario is changing in favor of AI. Sophisticated AI systems can assess content in the same manner as a human moderator by processing multiple contents simultaneously. These multimodal capabilities are rapidly diminishing human advantage.
Final Words
The combined efforts of automated and human content moderation give rise to the best results. Human moderation offers benefits like contextual adaptability, but the vast number of online interactions necessitates the scalability of AI algorithms. AI moderation can process content more quickly, reduce operating costs, mitigate biases, and protect the employee’s mental health. With advancements in technology, multimodal AI algorithms are growing in popularity, reshaping the content moderation landscape. Thus, to ensure a safer and more productive online environment for all users, it is important to achieve a balance between human talent and AI capabilities. Get in touch with the renowned AI company Opporture in North America, which provides professional AI model training services like no other.
