Google to mandate 'prominent' disclosure of AI content in political ads
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Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has introduced a new policy that will mandate political advertisers to "prominently" disclose when their ads contain AI-generated material, in an effort to increase transparency and curb the spread of inauthentic content in political advertising.
The mandate will go into effect mid-November, a year ahead of the U.S. presidential and congressional elections.
The disclosure requirements do not apply to advertisements that contain "minor alterations that are inconsequential to the claims made in the ad," such as image resizing or small color adjustments.
The new policy applies to ads with synthetic content that make it appear as if a person is saying or doing something they did not actually say or do. It also applies to ads that "alter footage of a real event or generate a realistic portrayal of an event that did not actually take place."
The disclosure, which will apply to image, video and audio content, must be clear and conspicuous, Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) said.
The move comes a week before top tech executives are scheduled to meet Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in Washington to discuss AI, including Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang.
Meanwhile, Europe has already called on platforms such as Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) and Meta (META) to add labels to AI-generated content.
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