Social media app TikTok has faced backlash from members of Congress and parents across the United States. The app has been accused of being a national security threat and failing to protect minors on the site. A new patent filing shows TikTok could be offering a new service soon if it remains free to operate in the U.S.
What Happened: TikTok CEO Shou Chew faced off against Congress recently, taking questions on how the platform moderates data storage and protects minors.
The consensus from many members of Congress has been to ban TikTok from the United States, with the view that the app owned by Chinese company ByteDance is a national security threat.
While time will tell if TikTok is banned in the United States, the popular social media app might be entering one of the hottest areas of growth in 2023: chatbots.
A recent patent filing by TikTok was shared by trademark attorney Josh Gerben of Gerben Law on Twitter Wednesday.
The patent was filed on April 12 and shows that TikTok has filed to trademark the name “TIKTOK TAKO” as a chabot.
According to the patent filing, TikTok Tako would offer any or all of the following:
- Computer chatbot software
- Computer programs and software for the artificial production of human speech and text
- Software for natural language processing, generation, understanding and analysis
- Software for machine-learning based language and speech processing
- Software for creating and generating text
- Software for creating indexes of information
Related Link: Should TikTok Be Banned In The US? 69% Of Benzinga Followers Say This
Why It’s Important: Chatbots and artificial intelligence have seen huge growth in 2023 thanks in large part to the rise in popularity of ChatGPT, a unit of OpenAI.
The growth of ChatGPT and potential use cases led to OpenAI receiving an additional $10-billion investment from Microsoft Corporation MSFT.
Tech companies like Microsoft and Alphabet have utilized chatbots as a way to improve their traditional search engines.
The patent filed by TikTok comes as the app remains incredibly popular among millenials and Gen Z despite the threat of a ban.
Several states have passed bills that will see social media apps like TikTok banned from usage by minors without parental permission. The state of Montana is also working on an outright ban of TikTok.
Elon Musk said in a recent interview that he is working on an alternative to ChatGPT called TruthGPT, after stating artificial intelligence is a threat to humanity if not approached correctly.
TikTok has seen huge subscriber growth, and many credit this growth to its short form content video style and use of an algorithm that picks which videos users are likely to watch with incredible accuracy. The integration of a chatbot could help the platform see additional growth and leverage its existing algorithm.
Read Next: Conflict Of Interest? Congress Members Who Own Meta, GOOG, SNAP Shares Could Benefit From TikTok Ban
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