After Meta began labeling photos with an “AI-Made” tag in May, photographers complained that the social networking company had been apply labels to real photos where they had used some basic editing tools.
Due to user feedback and general confusion around the level of AI used in a photo, the company is changing the tag to “AI Information” across all Meta apps.
Meta said the earlier version of the tag wasn’t clear enough for users to tell that the image with the tag wasn’t necessarily created with AI, but could have used AI-powered tools in the editing process.
“Like others in the industry, we found that our labels based on these metrics were not always aligned with user expectations and did not always provide sufficient context. For example, some content that included minor AI-enabled edits, such as retouching tools, included industry-standard metrics that were then labeled ‘Created with AI,’” the company said in a statement. blog post updated.
The company is not changing the underlying technology for detecting AI use in photos and labeling them. Meta still uses information from technical metadata standards such as C2PA And IPTC which include information about the use of AI tools.
This means that if photographers use tools like Adobe Generative AI Fill To remove objects, their photos could still be tagged with the new label. However, Meta hopes the new label will help people understand that the image with the label is not always created entirely by AI.
“‘AI Info’ can encompass content that has been created and/or edited with AI, so the hope is that this will become more in line with people’s expectations as we work with companies across the industry to improve the process,” Meta spokesperson Kate McLaughlin told TechCrunch via email.
The new tag still won’t solve the problem of fully AI-generated photos going unnoticed. And it won’t inform users about the degree of AI editing performed on an image.
Meta and other social networks will have to work to establish guidelines without being unfair to photographers who haven’t changed their editing workflows, but the tools they use to edit photos have an element of generative AI. On the other hand, companies like Adobe should warn photographers that when they use a certain tool, their image may be tagged with a label on other services.
