(Credit: Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
YouTube is now taking it upon itself to label AI videos.
Starting this month, the video-sharing platform will roll out new internal signals to detect AI-generated content. It will also improve the visibility of its AI labels by positioning them more prominently on both Shorts and long-form videos.
“We've learned in that time about what people find useful when it comes to AI disclosures, and today we're making two updates that we think will make this process much simpler and more intuitive for creators and viewers on YouTube,” the company said in a blog post.
AI labels have appeared on YouTube videos since 2024, when creators voluntarily disclose the use of AI during or after the upload stage. With the latest update, creators are still required to disclose AI use, but if they fail to do so and YouTube’s new systems “detect significant photorealistic AI use,” the labels will be applied automatically.
For long-form videos, the AI labels will appear below the video player (versus the description box). For Shorts, they’ll show up as an overlay on the vertical video.
(Credit: Google)If YouTube has labeled a video incorrectly, creators can change the status in YouTube Studio. However, if the video was created using YouTube’s own AI tools or contains C2PA metadata indicating it is fully AI-generated, the label will remain unchanged.
On its support page, Google also warns that creators who consistently choose not to disclose AI use in their videos could be subject to penalties, content removal, or a monetization ban.
As for deepfake videos of real people, YouTube began rolling out a feature for likeness detection and content removal for creators in 2025, and then expanded it to celebrities and other users in recent months.