Will your AI-edited video need a label? Govt to soon notify new rules

The government has completed consultations with the industry on its proposal to mandate labelling of AI-generated content and is likely to notify the related rules shortly, IT Secretary S Krishnan said.

In an interview with PTI, Krishnan said the industry has been “fairly responsible” and understands the rationale behind labelling AI-generated content, with no serious pushback against the proposal.

"Based on the inputs we have received, we are just consulting the other ministries within government, saying that these are the changes which have been suggested... so which changes we accept, which changes we make and what tweaks we make... that portion is on right now, and I think we should come out with the new rules very shortly," Krishnan said.

About the feedback and inputs coming in from the industry on this, Krishnan said, "I don't think they are against it."

"And again, this is not something which we are either asking them to register or go to a third party entity or placing some restriction of any kind. All that is being asked is label the content," he said, asserting that citizens have the right to know whether a particular piece of content has been generated synthetically or is authentic.

Krishnan said that even minor AI edits can sometimes significantly alter meaning, while routine technical enhancements may improve quality without changing facts.

“One word in a sentence can make a huge difference to what the outcome is,” he said.

Industry players, he said, have sought clarity to ensure that routine enhancements that do not alter substance are not questioned under the new framework.

"...the way that you photograph or take a video or record something, the phone itself enhances some of this, tries to make it better. So they (industry) want some clarity that those kind of technical changes, which don't alter anything in substance, but they are enhancements, are not simultaneously called into question when you do something like this... I think those kind of reasonable asks, we can certainly accommodate," Krishnan said.

In October, the government had proposed amendments to the Information Technology rules to mandate clear labelling of AI-generated content and increase the accountability of large platforms such as Facebook and YouTube for identifying and flagging synthetic information to curb harm from deepfakes and misinformation.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said the draft amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 aim to strengthen accountability among social media intermediaries and platforms that enable the creation or distribution of synthetic media.

Under the proposed rules, all AI-generated content would be required to carry visible or audible labels identifying it as synthetic. The label must cover at least 10% of a visual display or be heard during the first 10% of an audio clip’s duration.

Platforms would also be required to embed permanent metadata in such content to help users and authorities trace its origin.

The draft rules define synthetically generated information as content that is artificially or algorithmically created or altered using computer resources in a manner that appears reasonably authentic or true. The ministry had invited stakeholder comments on proposals covering labelling, visibility and metadata embedding to clearly distinguish synthetic content from authentic media.