YouTube makes AI labels more visible - and will be labelling content itself in future
YouTube will position AI labels more prominently in future and will also automatically recognise AI-generated content from May 2026. Even if Youtubers don't specify anything.
Youtube has announced two changes to its system for labelling AI content https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/improving-ai-labels-viewers-Youtubers/. The corresponding labels will now appear in more conspicuous places. In addition, the platform will automatically recognise photorealistic AI content from May 2026 and set the labels automatically - even if Youtubers do not provide any information.
New position, clearer format
In the past, AI labels were relatively inconspicuous. This is now changing: for long videos, the label appears directly below the video player, above the description. For shorts, it is displayed as an overlay on the video itself. This affects photorealistic content as well as content that has been significantly modified or generated by AI.
Content that is unrealistic, animated or only slightly edited will continue to be labelled in the expanded video description - i.e. less prominently. YouTube is talking about a standardised label format for all relevant content.
Automatic recognition from May 2026
YouTube is now introducing automatic AI recognition. If the internal systems detect that a video contains significant photorealistic AI content, the label will be set automatically - regardless of whether the Youtuber has specified this themselves. Anyone who believes they have been incorrectly labelled can adjust the classification in YouTube Studio.
In certain cases, however, the labelling remains permanent: For example, content created with YouTube's own AI tools such as Veo or Dream Screen, or videos with corresponding C2PA metadata (i.e. embedded AI generation information).
YouTube emphasises that AI labelling does not influence the recommendation of a video or its monetisation. It remains to be seen how reliably the automatic recognition works in practice - and how often Youtubers will find themselves wrongly labelled.
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