In a bid to curb misinformation and promote online transparency, China will require content created by artificial intelligence (AI) to be labelled as such from September this year, the South China Morning Post reports.
The new standardised regulations were issued on Friday by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), alongside the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the National Radio and Television Administration.
Both explicit and implicit labels for AI-generated text, images, audio, video and virtual content will become mandatory under the directive. Explicit signage must be clearly visible to users, while implicit marking should be embedded in the content’s metadata.
[See more: How the human language is navigating the global AI governance debate]
Digital platforms will be responsible for verifying AI-generated content before putting it online, adding labels where required. In cases where content shows signs of AI-generation but lacks the correct metadata identifiers, these must be flagged with the authorities.
Li Zonghui, vice president of the Institute of Cyber and Artificial Intelligence Rule of Law affiliated with the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, told the Global Times that AI-generated content often fabricated facts and references. Li said the new labels would help prevent deep fakes and academic dishonesty, as well as deter intentional AI fraud.
The AI rules come as Beijing makes signs it is ready to embrace the country’s private sector, with President Xi Jinping recently meeting with high-profile tech entrepreneurs – including leaders from DeepSeek, China’s upstart answer to US-developed ChatGPT.
