Earlier this year, Meta — parent company of Facebook and Instagram — said it would be adding a notification to images uploaded to its platforms that were made with AI. That rollout went poorly, and now the company is making another update to how it displays that notification, it’s second in three months.
Initially, Meta made these changes in response to recommendations from its Oversight Board, which said that giving users “transparency and additional context is now the better way to address manipulated media and avoid the risk of unnecessarily restricting freedom of speech.”
In response to that recommendation, Meta went with a very broad brush, labeling anything that came with the Content Authenticity Initiative’s AI tags as “Made with AI” even if it was only a small adjustment to the image. As PetaPixel reported during the initial rollout in May, the “Made with AI” label created more confusion than it cleared up and resulted in widespread outcry from photographers and content creators.
In July, Meta shifted its tag from “Made with AI” to “AI Info,” but didn’t adjust what types of images would get this tag. In this way, the approach would still punish photographers who use Adobe Photoshop equal to those who use full generative AI programs, like Stable Diffusion. Additionally, the tags Meta is reading — the ones from the CAI — aren’t included on all AI-generated images, letting some slip past Meta’s system. Additionally, Meta isn’t part of the CAI, meaning it’s not actively working with the companies that are trying to clear up AI confusion — it’s just using their work.
At least part of that approach is changing. Yesterday, Meta announced that it would be adjusting the “AI info” label to appear less penalizing to photographers who use an AI feature in Lightroom or Photoshop to adjust a real photo.
“Soon we’re rolling out a change to the ‘AI info’ labels on our platforms so they better reflect the extent of AI used in content. Our intent has always been to help people know when they see content that was made with AI, and we’ve continued to work with companies across the industry to improve our labeling process so that labels on our platforms are more in line with peoples’ expectations,” Meta writes.
“For content that we detect was only modified or edited by AI tools, we are moving the ‘AI info’ label to the post’s menu. We will still display the ‘AI info’ label for content we detect was generated by an AI tool and share whether the content is labeled because of industry-shared signals or because someone self-disclosed. These changes will begin next week.”
A full timeline of Meta’s AI labeling journey can be seen in its newroom.
Image credits: Meta