YouTube is changing how it handles videos made with artificial intelligence. The platform will begin adding its own labels to videos that look like they were created or heavily altered by AI.
Right now, creators are supposed to tell YouTube when they use realistic AI in their videos. But not everyone does. So YouTube is building a system that can spot these videos automatically. If the system finds realistic AI content without a disclosure, it will add a label anyway.
Creators who disagree with the label can go into YouTube Studio and change the settings for that video. That is their chance to correct a mistake.
Some labels cannot be removed, though. Videos made with YouTube’s own AI tools, like Veo and Dream Screen, will always have a label. The same goes for any video that carries a special digital tag called C2PA metadata, which confirms the whole thing was made by AI.
The placement of these labels is also changing. For normal YouTube videos, the label will sit between the video player and the description box. For Shorts, the label will appear right on top of the video itself. In the past, most AI disclosures were hidden inside the expanded description. That will still happen for videos that are not very realistic, such as cartoons or content with only small AI changes.
YouTube says these labels will not hurt a creator’s reach or earnings. A representative named Rene Ritchie explained in a video that the labels do not affect recommendations or ad money. The goal is simply to give viewers clear information.
The company first started asking creators to label AI content back in 2024. At that time, only videos about sensitive topics like health or news got a more visible label. Everything else stayed in the description. Now, YouTube is extending the prominent label to all photorealistic or heavily AI-generated videos.