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China announces plan to label all AI-generated content with watermarks and metadata.
(english.news.cn)
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Just because something is theoretically circumventable doesn't mean we shouldn't make it as hard as possible to circumvent it.
The reason why misinformation is so common these days is because of concerted effort by fascists to obtain control over media companies. Once they are in power and have significant influence within those companies they can poison them, turning them into massive misinformation engines churning out content at a pace even faster than we ever believed possible. This problem has existed since the rise of mass media especially in the 19th century. But social media presents far faster and more direct throughlines to spreading misinformation to the masses.
And those masses do not care if something is labeled as AI or not. They will believe it one way or the other. This still doesn't change that it is necessary to directly label AI generated content as such. What is and isn't made by a human is extremely important. We cannot equate algorithms with people, and it's necessary to make that distinguishment as clearly as possible.
The problem is you can't make a digital label that hard to circumvent. Much like a signature, you sign something you want to prove it is genuinely from you, but you won't sign something that's not from you while not signing things that are, especially in digital format. Digital signature can just be stripped out of the data. Watermarks on images can now patched with the help of inpainting models. Disclaimers in text can just be deleted. The default shouldn't be "This thing doesn't have an AI label so it would be written by human." The label itself it a slippery slope that helps misinformation spread faster and aid building alternate facts. Adding a label won't help people identify contents generated with ML models, but let them defer the identification to that mere label because it said so, or didn't.
Misinformation didn't spread fast simply because fascists obtained controls on medias. Just look at how China, Russia, and Iran launch misinformation campaigns. They didn't have to control those media, but some seed accounts that make sensational title that attracts people in more powerful position and recognition to spread it out. For more info on misinformation and disinformation, I recommend you watch Ryan McBeth's video on YT.
Yes, we need a way to identify what is and what not generated by ML models, but that should not be done by labeling ML contents.
I'm curious what you would suggest to aid identifying generated content if not clear labeling. Sure its circumventable but again its more than what already exists. It provides legal precedence for repercussions to companies trying to pass off AI generated content as human created.
Please allow me to have a little bit of time deep thoughts and organize myself. It might take a while, but I will give you a response.