Meta to Start Labeling AI Generated Content from May

Meta’s recent disclosure of its policies towards deepfakes is an important change in the way social media treats a persisting topic of misuse by people of simulated media. What Meta wants to do is label and specify AI-generated content instead of just obliterating it as it tries to find a fine line between combatting the spread of false information and preserving freedom of speech.

This move comes whilst both governments and users voice their concerns on the possible vulnerabilities that deepfakes might introduce in the elections which will come up soon. Meta’s admittance of the difficulty in distinguishing between a computer-generated text and reality itself indicates how the problem is complex and needs to be tackled.

Therefore, White House demands for companies to watermark AI-generated content reveal the need for a partnership framework between the giants of technology and the government’s agencies in addressing this critical problem. Not only Meta’s development of synthetic media detection technology but also the implementation of watermarks of images created with its AI generator, demonstrates a preventive strategy for arresting the spread of modified content in social platforms.

In the communication with the users, Meta once again tells the users to critically evaluate when they come across AI-generated content because of factors such as the accounts’ trustworthiness and the unnaturalness of the content. The latter indicates the wider efforts of giving users enough tools and information for them to have the capacity to distinguish.