YouTube Wants You To Know When A Video Is AI

Two major updates rolled out this month:

• Disclosure labels are moving to where you can actually see them. Before you had to click to find them, now the label sits directly below the video player. For shorts, it's an overlay on the video.
• YouTube will now auto-detect AI content and label it for users. Creators are still expected to manually check a "this uses AI" box, else videos automatically get the label.

Creators can contest the label but it's permanent if content was made with YouTube's own AI tools (Veo, Dream Screen), or if content contains C2PA metadata, which is like a digital watermark that proves a video is AI. It only applies to photorealistic AI content that could fool viewers, so the disclosure label for regular AI content stays in the description where it's always been.

The AI label does not affect recommendations, search ranking, or monetization so you can still see 100% AI-generated videos in your feed. YouTube says it's for transparency.

If you use the app, surely you've noticed the flood of AI content, but do you notice any labels on videos? YouTube has had disclosure rules since 2024, but creators don't really follow them. Doesn't look like this will change anything though. Happy viewing.