YouTube forces creators to disclose their use of AI, but not always

YouTube now requires content creators to disclose when they use artificial intelligence to alter content for the clarity of viewers. Content that must be tagged includes altered images of people or events that didn't happen to distinguish fact from fiction. AI disclosure tags will be more prominent on certain topics such as health, news, elections or financial content.

Here's What We Know

In an announcement posted on YouTube's help page, Google says it is launching a new tool that will require YouTube creators to indicate when they have used AI to create content. The information is then displayed in an expanded content description where viewers can learn how what they see has been altered. Content to be tagged includes anything that makes a person say or do something that didn't actually happen, as well as altered images of an actual event or place. AI sound generation will also be tagged in the same way.

While it may be easy enough to miss these notifications in the expanded description, Google noted that it will make these notifications more prominent in content on certain topics. For example, YouTube videos about medicine, news, elections, or financial issues will have a more obvious AI disclosure tag.

However, some content doesn't need a tag to be included in AI. The use of light filters or special background effects doesn't need to be disclosed. Creators also don't have to tag content if the AI is used for production issues such as script generation. Google says that if AI changes to content are "minor", reporting those changes is optional.

Source: Youtube