YouTube requires tags on AI creations

Google is now requiring people who create content on YouTube to label any content that was created by AI tools that are deemed as realistic. In a blog post, Google revealed that the new AI labeling features are now available as a tool in YouTube's Creator Studio. The company first announced its AI labeling plans back in November 2023.

The new tool is labeled as "Altered content" within the Creator Studio. It simply asks YouTube video makers to say "Yes" or 'No" if their video has one or more of the following bullet points:

• Makes a real person appear to say or do something they didn't say or do
• Alters footage of a real event or place
• Generates a realistic-looking scene that didn't actually occur

According to the blog post, YouTube artists are not required to mark non-realistic video created using generative AI techniques. One example was "someone riding a unicorn through a fantastical world." The same is true for the employment of AI technologies to simply adjust the color or lighting of movies, as well as effects such as background blur and beauty video filters.

These new AI-powered description labels will first show on YouTube's phone applications, then spread to the desktop and TV apps. YouTube intends to deploy "enforcement measures" if a YouTube creator repeatedly fails to accurately identify their realistic AI films, but does not specify what they would be (video removal, demonetization, or account suspension). YouTube also has the right to apply the classification to videos that have "the potential to confuse or mislead people."

Google is also developing a way for YouTube viewers to give anonymous notifications to YouTube when a video contains realistic-looking AI-created content.