Our approach to responsible AI innovation

Our approach to responsible AI innovation

BY JENNIFER FLANNERY O’CONNOR AND EMILY MOXLEYVICE PRESIDENTS, PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, YOUTUBE

Generative AI has the potential to unlock creativity on YouTube and transform the experience for viewers and creators on our platform. But just as important, these opportunities must be balanced with our responsibility to protect the YouTube community. All content uploaded to YouTube is subject to our Community Guidelines—regardless of how it’s generated—but we also know that AI will introduce new risks and will require new approaches.

We’re in the early stages of our work, and will continue to evolve our approach as we learn more. Here’s a look at what YouTube will roll out over the coming months and into the new year.

Disclosure requirements and new content labels

We believe it’s in everyone’s interest to maintain a healthy ecosystem of information on YouTube. We have long-standing policies that prohibit technically manipulated content that misleads viewers and may pose a serious risk of egregious harm. However, AI’s powerful new forms of storytelling can also be used to generate content that has the potential to mislead viewers—particularly if they’re unaware that the video has been altered or is synthetically created.

To address this concern, over the coming months, we’ll introduce updates that inform viewers when the content they’re seeing is synthetic. Specifically, we’ll require creators to disclose when they’ve created altered or synthetic content that is realistic, including using AI tools. When creators upload content, we will have new options for them to select to indicate that it contains realistic altered or synthetic material. For example, this could be an AI-generated video that realistically depicts an event that never happened, or content showing someone saying or doing something they didn’t actually do.

This is especially important in cases where the content discusses sensitive topics, such as elections, ongoing conflicts and public health crises, or public officials. Creators who consistently choose not to disclose this information may be subject to content removal, suspension from the YouTube Partner Program, or other penalties. We’ll work with creators before this rolls out to make sure they understand these new requirements.

We’ll inform viewers that content may be altered or synthetic in two ways. A new label will be added to the description panel indicating that some of the content was altered or synthetic. And for certain types of content about sensitive topics, we’ll apply a more prominent label to the video player.

Taken from: https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/our-approach-to-responsible-ai-innovation/