META HAS ANNOUNCED it is working with “industry partners” to signal to its social media users when a piece of content has been created using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Meta is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads which launched recently in the EU.
In a statement today, Meta remarked that as the “difference between human and synthetic content gets blurred, people want to know where the boundary lies”.
The statement added that some users are coming across AI-generated content for the first time and want “transparency around this new technology”.
Meta applies an “Imagined with AI” label to photorealistic images created using the Meta AI feature, but has today said it wants to be “able to do this with content created with other companies’ tools too”.
Meta said it has been “working with industry partners to align on common technical standards that signal when a piece of content has been created using AI”.
This will be done with companies Meta already works with on AI standards, including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Midjourney and other firms involved in the fierce race to lead the nascent sector, Meta’s head of global affairs Nick Clegg said.
But while companies have started including “signals” in images made using their AI tools, the industry has been slower to start putting such identifying markers into audio or video created with AI, according to Clegg, who is a former UK deputy Prime Minister.
“Being able to detect these signals will make it possible for us to label AI-generated images that users post to Facebook, Instagram and Threads,” added today’s Meta statement.
Meta said it will start applying the labels “in the coming months” and noted that it will be making this move during a time when “a number of important elections are taking place around the world”.
Meanwhile, politicians and women have been prime targets for so-called “deepfake” images, with AI-created nudes of superstar singer Taylor Swift recently going viral on X.
Deepfakes are digitally manipulated images, video and audio that are designed to create fake material featuring the likeness of an individual.
They have become easier to make in recent years and are increasingly used for malicious purposes, as was the case for Swift last month sexually explicit AI-generated images of the pop star went viral on X.
Last Friday, EU member states approved landmark rules on reining in AI, after tough last-mile negotiations on the legislation billed as a world first.
China introduced rules on generative AI last year, while US President Joe Biden issued an executive order regulating the technology, but the EU’s law is the most comprehensive, with binding rules on a wide range of issues from risk to copyright.
The EU law will regulate AI systems based on risk assessments of the software models involved – to be carried out by the firms themselves.
The higher the identified risk to individuals’ rights or health, for example, the greater the systems’ obligations.
The European Parliament is due to vote on the text in March or April, before it becomes law.
Lawmakers said they were confident the text would pass without any issues and it should then be formally approved in May.
The law will not enter into force immediately, however.
Some rules will apply within six months while other elements will kick in two years later.
-With additional reporting from - © AFP 2024
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