YouTube will begin automatically labeling videos when its systems detect "significant" photorealistic AI use, while also making AI-content disclosures more visible below long-form videos and directly on Shorts. "We've heard consistently from our community that they value transparency when it comes to generative AI content," YouTube said in a blog post. "These changes are designed to balance transparency with creator control." Variety reports: Under YouTube's guidelines, creators will still be required to manually disclose when they use realistic AI. But starting this week, it also will roll out a new internal system to help identify AI-generated content. "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. YouTube creators who believe their content was incorrectly flagged as AI-generated can modify the disclosure status using the YouTube Studio tool. However, according to YouTube, the AI labels will "remain permanent" in some cases, including for content created using YouTube's own AI tools (such as Veo or Dream Screen) and for content that contains C2PA metadata (based on standards from the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) that indicates it was fully AI-generated. In addition, YouTube is moving the disclosure label for photorealistic and meaningfully AI-altered or AI-generated content to a more prominent position. Until now, YouTube labeled AI content in a video's expanded description. Going forward, for long-form videos, the AI label will now appear directly below the video player and above the description. For YouTube Shorts, the label will appear as an overlay 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," said Rene Ritchie, YouTube head of editorial and creator liaison. He added that the AI labels alone "do not affect how our videos are recommended or whether they can earn money. This is purely about giving viewers the right information at the right time."

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