Meta is making a slight tweak to its “Made with AI” labels to clarify confusion about what exactly these indicators mean when they appear in-stream.
Apparently, some Facebook and Instagram users were unhappy about their posts being tagged as “created with AI” after they’d only made minor edits using digital tools, so Meta changed the tag wording to the more vague “AI-informed.”
As you can see from these examples, if Meta’s system detects that AI tools were used to create an image, or if the user indicates that AI tools were used in its composition, the tag will include an “AI Info” note that, when tapped, will display an overview of how AI may have been used in creating the image.
According to Meta:
“We also found that labels based on industry-standard AI metrics didn’t always align with user expectations or provide enough context. For example, some content that included minor AI-based changes, like retouching tools, included industry-standard metrics and was labeled “Made with AI.” We’re working with companies across the industry to improve our process so that our labeling approach better aligns with intent, and we’re updating “Made with AI” labels across our apps to “AI Info” so users can click to learn more.“
So rather than a blanket flag that an image was generated by AI, Meta’s revised wording will soften the impact of the tag, ensuring that users who make only minor edits are not criticized for posting AI content.
This is especially important for artists and photographers whose work has been tagged as AI when in fact it is not, which leads to backlash and debate in the comments section, forcing people to justify their creations.
This is another indicator of the evolving AI environment, which raises different challenges about how to determine what is real and what isn’t, and whether to trust the skill of the creator or machine generation.
And actually, I’m not sure that will matter going forward: Right now there’s a strong backlash against AI art being created from text prompts, but eventually these generations may become so commonplace that the distinction between what is real and what isn’t may become meaningless.
But at least for now, the actual contribution of AI tools in visual production needs to be more clearly defined.
Perhaps as a countermeasure to that, users who want to present AI creations as their own will use this as a way to downplay how they used AI in the creative process, but it would make sense for Meta to offer broader limitations on the process to satisfy human creators.
