YouTube now tells you whether videos were “taken with a camera” — because so many aren’t

YouTube will now tell its users when videos are “taken with a camera,” as many of them are not.

The captions appear below the videos along with the message “How this content was created.” “This content was recorded using a camera or other recording device,” it says.

The labels are a response to the rise of artificial intelligence and the threat videos created with it could pose. Numerous experts have pointed out that labeling videos that are real or not real can help prevent people from being misled by fake footage.

The videos use a standard called the C2PA standard, which allows various platforms to make it clear whether a video has been edited or whether it is authentic. For example, some camera companies have integrated the technology into their cameras, allowing YouTube to automatically detect whether the video was actually shot on a device.

Videos can be edited and still receive the tag. However, they may not be edited in a way that makes “significant changes” to its “core character or content” or makes it impossible to trace the video to its origin.

Google had already allowed YouTube users to press a button that identified their videos as “altered or synthetic content” so they could label their own AI creations. But the new system works in exactly the opposite way: it allows users to label real videos and relies on technical systems designed to make lying more difficult.