YouTube Boosts Visibility of Labels on AI-Generated Videos

As more and more AI-generated videos flood its platform, YouTube announced Wednesday that it’s improving how it informs viewers they’re watching AI-generated content and introducing autodetection to help with that labeling.

The Google-owned service began labeling AI-generated videos two years ago, but said that it’s making the labeling and display of those labels “simpler and more intuitive” for both viewers and people uploading videos. In a video explaining the changes, Rene Ritchie, YouTube’s head of editorial and creator liaison, said the goal is “context at a glance.”

For long-form videos that use AI to produce photorealistic results or are “meaningfully AI altered or generated,” a label indicating AI content will appear below the video player, above the video’s description. For the platform’s increasingly popular Shorts videos, the label will appear as an overlay on the video.

Creator disclosure and auto detection

YouTube already requires people uploading videos to disclose whether the creator used realistic AI to generate the content. But even if creators don’t disclose that, YouTube will now use its own tools to detect that type of AI use and automatically apply a label.

Creators can attempt to remove the label if they feel the system got it wrong. But if the video was created with Google’s own video tools or there’s metadata indicating generative AI, YouTube said, the label will stay.

The label doesn’t affect rankings or monetization.

Earlier this year, Apple introduced AI labeling on its Apple Music service. A CNET survey earlier this year found that more than half of Americans (51%) want better labeling of AI content online.