You must now label your AI content on YouTube

Generative AI may give you many new ways to express yourself, especially with video generators like Sora. However, viewers increasingly want more transparency about what they’re seeing. So, YouTube now addresses it, requiring you to disclose when your content uses realistic altered or synthetic media, including generative AI.

YouTube has introduced a new tool in Creator Studio to help you label the altered or Ai content. These labels will appear in the video description or directly on the player.

Which content must you label?

YouTube notes that the focus is on any content that could be mistaken for reality, including:

• Deepfakes: Replacing a person’s face with another’s or using synthetic voices for narration.
• Altered reality: Making a real building appear on fire or changing a cityscape.
• Fictional realism: Showing a realistic scene of a fictional event, like a tornado approaching a real town.

The exceptions

Keep in mind, though, that not all unrealistic content needs labeling. Here are the exceptions to the rule:

1. Unrealistic scenes: Anything from fantastical worlds to people riding unicorns.
2. Basic edits: Adjusting colors, lighting filters, or blurring backgrounds.
3. Visual enhancements: Beauty filters and other visual effects are good to go (although I hope this will change in the future for the sake of body image and mental health.

Where to find the labels

The labels are rolling out across YouTube in the coming weeks. It will start with your mobile app, with desktop and TV apps to follow.

While creators adjust to this new system, YouTube may add labels in cases of misleading content. Additionally, YouTube is collaborating with industry partners like the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) to enhance digital content transparency further.

Remember YouTube’s work on a privacy process allowing individuals to request the removal of AI-generated content replicating their face or voice? This initiative is still underway, with details on its global rollout coming soon.