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Increased connectivity of the digital age has transitioned many businesses from brick-and-mortar to digital-first. Live media like video streaming and audio streaming can reach diverse and vast audiences in real-time at the click of a button. The major challenge of increased internet connectivity and vast sums of content being circulated, is to consistently ensure the safety and reliability of all content shared on a platform. 

Introducing AI based content moderation can prove useful for large businesses with vast sums of data and user activity to track. AI can do the job faster than humans and cover a lot more ground than any single individual. Human representatives are often tasked with making content-specific decisions and to resolve any biases the AI system is prone to when filtering large sums of data.  Particularly, social media moderators leverage AI to manage voluminous traffic and meet user engagement.  

In this article, we explore the benefits and limitations of AI for content moderation, and how AI isn’t fully ready to take the burden off human content moderators just yet.  

Why do companies leverage AI content moderation? 

Content moderation today is a collaboration between human moderators and automated AI-powered moderators. By reducing the dependency on a human workforce, many companies find AI to be an inventive method for handling content moderation tasks.  

AI for content moderation can use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to detect profanity in speech, locate brand mentions, personalize responses to users, screen user journeys, validate images, text and audio, and much more. AI can handle voluminous tasks and get the job done quicker than any single individual without the risk of affecting a human moderator’s mental health from exposure to harmful content.  

How AI Content Moderation Works?

How AI Content Moderation WorksSource: Our thinking: The startling power generative AI is bringing to software development (kpmg.com) 

At speed and scale, AI can help your business manage large sums of moderation requests and save the costs of hiring a separate team in-house to take on hundreds of requests at once. Plus, your AI moderation can easily be built right into your intranet or social communities at the click of a button. But there are many ethical aspects to be considered, even in a fully AI-powered setup. The human eye is necessary to verify the reliability of user experiences, and content like speech, text, audio and video.  

When working with AI, humans are responsible for preventing any mistakes the AI may make. The combination of AI-powered content moderation and human moderators is nevertheless a practical business tool that more companies are beginning to actualize in 2023.  

What are the limitations of AI content moderation? 

The use of AI for content moderation lessens the impact of harmful content on human moderators by safeguarding users from harmful channels and sensitive content. AI can blur images, limit exposure in photos, censor audio, remove all types of harmful or spammy content and more. In a business environment, AI content moderation is deployed with pre-defined parameters to filter content on a platform via real-time automation.  

When it comes to contextual human experiences though, only humans can react with empathy, rationale and emotional intelligence by studying diverse contexts of your user experiences and types of content before taking critical moderation decisions.  

Some other challenges and risks of AI content moderation include; 

Balancing Freedom of Expression and Protection of Rights and Dignity 

  1. Ethical and legal considerations must be fed into an AI system and trained with bulk data repositories for the best output 
  2. Compliance with laws and regulations, local and international, are a fundamental aspect of content moderation that applies to both human and AI content moderation

Handling Unpredictability and Complexity of Real-time Content 

  1. Technical challenges and limitations of AI tools suggest that many automated tools are not built to handle the unpredictability of multiple media channels, each with its own regulations 
  2. Addressing errors, glitches, or malfunctions in real-time is beneficial, but AI requires human expertise to train and test data before being deployed

Avoiding Bias, Discrimination, and Manipulation 

  1. Considering diversity and context of audience engagement and content creators is very important, and in many cases, AI must be trained extensively on the cultural context of users 
  2. Mitigating risk of biased or discriminatory outcomes are possible with human moderators since AI is prone to be biased based on the data it was trained on

Fostering Trust and Engagement with Community 

  1. Building transparent and accountable moderation practices is possible with AI but requires human expertise to manage communities, host events and engage in discourse with other users 
  2. Promoting user participation and feedback is possible with AI, but people trust people and getting to talk about your experience to a human is often most fulfilling

AI still has more work to do before it can moderate material effectively. You will still have to rely on people to solve problems, pay attention to detail, and adapt to shifting business conditions, especially if you want to create long-lasting connections with your audiences, contributors and users. 

Human vs AI content moderation 

While AI moderation is capable of rapidly identifying and removing content that satisfies certain criteria, such as hate speech or explicit language, it is less proficient at picking up on subtler infractions or comprehending the context in which a specific piece of content was shared. AI frequently finds it challenging to correctly interpret the subtleties of language, cultural allusions, and humor, all which humans are better suited to understand.  

A more empathetic and individualized approach is made possible by humans because moderators can take into consideration unique situations and think about how their choices will affect the emotions of the people involved. 

Human vs AI content moderation

Source: IBM Watson Discovery | IBM 

At the crossing of AI and human interaction, the introduction of AI content moderation brings a host of benefits for companies looking to regulate their private and public networks. 

AI can help companies manage voluminous content, automate rigorous tasks and save time that would otherwise go into training personnel to take on content moderation for your company. AI may be able to fetch information faster and perform complicated tasks seamlessly, but as only humans can respond with critical discernment, morality and choice, AI lacks critical reflection required for the job. 

Many customer-centric companies choose human moderators over AI in the digital age of social media and bulletin board news. Here’s why! 

  • Reliability and Accuracy: Humans can apply their experience, judgment, and emotional intelligence to each case, which allows them to make decisions that are accurate and reliable with a reduced risk of mistakes and false positives.
  • Dataset Biases: As they can make more complex and unique choices and are less likely to reinforce biases discovered in datasets or algorithmic decision-making, humans reduce bias in content moderation. They can also consider how decisions about content moderation will affect content creators and the larger group
  • Contextual Human Speech Comprehension: Humans are better able to grasp the subtleties of speech and its context, which can be crucial in deciding whether content is offensive or harmful. They can also avoid misinterpretation or incorrect classification of content compared to automated tools that rely on existing data only.
  • Transparency and Accountability: Since they can give justifications and explanations for their decisions and are more readily available for user comments and complaints, humans provide more open and accountable content moderation decisions. This contributes to increasing user confidence and trust in the platform’s usability, which is crucial for sustaining a good user experience. 

AI models are trained using specific data, which makes them prone to what’s called a ‘creator bias,’ in favor of the data made available to the AI by its creators. If you are to harness the connectivity of the internet, it’s important to leverage AI tools that can be continuously trained and developed to assure the quality of information and prevent leakages. 

Humans, although significantly slower, are more accurate to AI tools because they can apply critical reflection and reasoning to their decisions, considering the particulars of each case, as well as being better able to comprehend subtle cultural and linguistic nuances. 

Will AI take over content moderation? 

The adoption of AI across the globe is increasing, and the demand for qualified human capital to moderate, monitor and assure quality of content is massive. This is because the strict compliance regulations for most rigorous moderation tasks require strategic thinking and problem-solving capabilities of humans. 

Human characteristics such as empathy, discernment, consciousness, and morality are a winning aspect of any relationship. And it’s not always the case that AI can handle content moderation for human users on its own. AI-based content filtering at a scale compromises a platform’s originality because it can’t create exceptions and is always biased in favor of the creator database. While screening sensitive material for the human eye, AI is also prone to making mistakes in judgement.  

AI is catching up with enhanced capabilities over time, but it’s a long game because humans are the subject matter experts on human relationships, and more users trust human interactions over AI when it comes to online experiences.  

Outsource Content Moderation to Subject Matter Experts 

ExpertCallers provides end-to-end content moderation support for companies seeking to outsource their content moderation tasks. As discussed, human moderation is essential for accuracy, reliability, contextual understanding, and mitigating bias in content moderation.  

Benefits of Outsourcing Content Moderation Services to ExpertCallers 

Benefits of Outsourcing Content Moderation Services to ExpertCallers

 ExpertCallers recognizes the urgency for high-quality content moderation services and provides a team of experienced moderators to deliver quality services, while maintaining the highest standards of compliance, transparency and accountability. 
Our approach includes the integration of reliable AI tools to enhance the efficiency of our client’s moderation services.
By outsourcing content moderation services to the pros, you gain the following perks.

  • Zero system changes: Outsourcing content moderation eliminates the need for you to make significant changes to existing systems or invest in new technologies. 
  • Get subject matter experts: Outsourcing content moderation also provides access to a team of subject matter experts who possess knowledge of industry-specific content, which makes for better moderation decisions. 
  • Ensure quality and consistency: Guarantee personalized moderation decisions and maintain a set of moderation guidelines, ensuring a better user experience for customers. 
    • Save operational costs: Outsourcing content moderation can help you save operational costs associated with recruiting, training, and managing an in-house moderation team. 
    • Separately managed teams: Specialized teams ensure that content moderation tasks are efficiently managed without affecting the day-to-day business operations. 

By choosing ExpertCallers for content moderation support, your company can rest assured that your content is being moderated by a team of professionals who are committed to delivering the best outcomes for your business and its users.