Meta announced on Tuesday it will begin labeling AI-generated images on Facebook and Instagram “in the coming months” while calling for “common technical standards” for identifying such content ahead of a historic global election year, just one day after an oversight board criticized its ‘incoherent’ policy on manipulated media.
Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, said in a blog post the social media giant will begin labeling AI-generated images on Facebook, Instagram and Threads “in the coming months” as it works with “industry partners” to develop common detection standards for AI content.
Meta, which includes Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, already applies “Imagined with AI” labels for images created using its Meta AI feature, but Clegg said Meta wants to also be able to label content created by other companies.
Clegg said labels will be applied to images from Adobe, Google, Microsoft, Midjourney, OpenAI and Shutterstock, as the companies execute “plans for adding metadata to images created by their tools.”
According to Clegg, the platforms will add a feature that allows users to flag if content is AI-generated so it can be labeled while industry works to develop the detection standards—a feature that will be required when users post “organic content with a photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio” that has been “digitally created or altered.”
Clegg said it’s not possible to identify all AI-generated content, with the company “pursuing a range of options” to prevent users from removing invisible markers, such as watermarks and metadata, which indicates content is AI-generated.
“This work is especially important as this is likely to become an increasingly adversarial space in the years ahead,” Clegg said. “People and organizations that actively want to deceive people with AI-generated content will look for ways around safeguards that are put in place to detect it.”
On Monday, Meta’s Oversight Board, which is funded by Meta but run independently, called for the company to rework its ‘incoherent’ policy on manipulated media after upholding a decision that allows an altered video of President Joe Biden to remain on Facebook.
Meta is one of several big tech companies across the globe that has outlined how it plans to moderate AI-generated content throughout 2024’s record number of global elections, saying in November that it will uphold past practices and would begin labeling AI-generated political advertisements. That same month, it also banned advertisers from using its generative AI software to create political ads on Instagram and Facebook.
Meta Should Reconsider Its ‘Incoherent’ Media Manipulation Policy, Oversight Board Urges (Forbes)
Here’s How AI And Tech Giants Say They’ll Moderate Content In 2024—The World’s Biggest Election Year (Forbes)
Meta Bans Political Ads From Using Its Generative AI—And Requires Disclosures For Other Fake Images (Forbes)
