Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Meta announced that it would be labelling AI-generated content and manipulated media on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
Besides incorrectly labelling original photos as AI-generated, Meta is also adding labels to those photos that may have been edited using AI features such as Adobe’s Generative Fill.
Also Read | https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/nikon-working-on-new-camera-tech-to-distinguish-its-images-from-ai-fakes-9405831/In addition to having users self-disclose AI-generated content, Meta said that it will also detect AI use on its own.
For instance, it could lead to users dismissing the ‘Made with AI’ label altogether – even if they are being correctly applied.
Users have also pointed out that there is no option to uncheck or remove the ‘Made with AI’ label.
At a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell AI-generated images from original ones, Meta’s AI labelling initiative could be making it more challenging to distinguish between the two.
Several users have accused the big tech company of incorrectly tagging their posts with a ‘Made with AI’ label even though the photos have not been generated using AI, according to a report by TechCrunch.
For example, a photograph of a basketball player captured by former White House photographer Pete Souza was labelled as being ‘Made with AI’ on Instagram. “Unlike my previous posts, I had this film processed a couple of days after the game. I’m not clear why Instagram is using the “made with AI” on my post. There is no AI with my photos,” Souza clarified in the caption.
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In one instance, an Instagram user shared how a photo of their grandparents carried the AI label whereas another user said that an actual photo of herself in a costume carried the tag. Closer home, several posts by the official Kolkata Knight Riders handle have been marked as ‘Made with AI’, including a photo of the cricket team winning the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL).
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Meta announced that it would be labelling AI-generated content and manipulated media on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. However, it appears that the initiative by the Mark Zuckerberg-led company still has a long way to go. The posts that were reportedly mislabelled as being AI-generated appear as such only in mobile view. Furthermore, the AI labels appear to be inconsistently applied across platforms as the same IPL photo did not carry any tags on Facebook.
Besides incorrectly labelling original photos as AI-generated, Meta is also adding labels to those photos that may have been edited using AI features such as Adobe’s Generative Fill. As per reports, even slightly altering a photo using such AI features can be picked up by Meta as being AI-generated.
“Our intent has always been to help people know when they see content that has been made with AI. We are taking into account recent feedback and continue to evaluate our approach so that our labels reflect the amount of AI used in an image,” a Meta spokesperson was quoted as saying by TechCrunch.
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How does Meta identify and label AI-generated content?
Currently, Meta has adopted a two-pronged approach to identifying and labelling AI-generated content. Firstly, it requires users themselves to label photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that has been generated or modified using AI. This can include an AI-generated video that realistically shows a group of people walking around an outdoor market or a reel with a realistic AI-generated voiceover. If users fail to label such content, Meta warns that they could be penalised.
However, these labelling requirements do not apply to users posting AI-generated content that’s not photorealistic such as a video of an outdoor landscape created in the style of a cartoon.
Also Read | https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/nikon-working-on-new-camera-tech-to-distinguish-its-images-from-ai-fakes-9405831/
In addition to having users self-disclose AI-generated content, Meta said that it will also detect AI use on its own. “Any content that contains industry-standard signals that it’s generated by AI will be labeled as “Made with AI.” This includes content that is created or edited using third-party AI tools,” the blog post read.
It could mean that Meta’s detection tools are reading the metadata of photos to determine that they’re AI-generated even if the images were only altered using AI.
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Meta’s mislabelling of original content as AI-generated could have consequences. For instance, it could lead to users dismissing the ‘Made with AI’ label altogether – even if they are being correctly applied. Users have also pointed out that there is no option to uncheck or remove the ‘Made with AI’ label. As a result, many of them are devising workarounds to Meta’s AI labelling initiative such as copying and pasting the image into a blank Photoshop document or uploading a screenshot of the image instead of the image itself.
