Real or AI? It can sometimes be hard to tell the difference when you’re watching videos on YouTube.
Now, the platform says it’s about to get a lot more obvious.
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YouTube is rolling out more prominent labels for videos created or heavily altered by artificial intelligence. The company says the goal is to make sure viewers can tell right away when realistic-looking content was generated with AI.
It comes as social media platforms are dealing with a flood of realistic AI video, music and images that can be harder for users to spot.
Will this change things for content creators?
YouTube says the change is about transparency, not punishment — videos won’t be demoted or de-monetized just because they use AI.
The platform already requires creators to disclose realistic AI content, but the company says it’s now also building tools that can detect and label some videos automatically.
“If a creator doesn’t specify whether or not they used AI, but our systems detect significant photorealistic AI use, we will now automatically apply a label,” YouTube said in a blog post Wednesday.
The new tool will start rolling out this week.
“For long-form videos, the label is moving from the description to a prominent spot just below the player,” Rene Ritchie, YouTube’s Creator Liaison said. “And for shorts, it’ll be an overlay right on the video itself. The goal here is context at a glance. If it looks real but was made with AI, viewers will know immediately.”
Other platforms labeling AI content
YouTube isn’t the only platform making a change like this.
In April, Spotify added a certification badge. Dubbed “Verified by Spotify,” the badge indicates whether a song was created by a real person or AI.
Apple Music also requires labels and distributors to flag and attach “Transparency Tags” to AI-generated music and artwork.
And Instagram and its parent company Meta use “AI info” overlays and AI creator tags. They indicate when images, audio or video have either been created or heavily altered by AI.
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