YouTube said it will begin automatically labelling AI-generated videos that creators fail to disclose.

The Google-owned platform announced a major overhaul of its AI disclosure system, including more prominent labels for AI-generated or heavily AI-altered videos and new internal detection tools designed to identify undisclosed AI content.

Under the changes, labels for photorealistic AI-generated content will now appear directly beneath long-form videos and as overlays on YouTube Shorts, making them far more visible to viewers.

The move comes as generative AI tools rapidly transform online video production and concerns grow over misinformation, deepfakes and the increasing difficulty of distinguishing real footage from AI-created material.

YouTube said creators will still be required to disclose realistic AI use during the upload process, but from this month the platform will begin automatically applying labels where its systems detect “significant photorealistic AI use”.

Creators will be able to dispute incorrect labels through YouTube Studio, although disclosures will remain permanent for content created using YouTube AI tools such as Veo and Dream Screen, or videos containing C2PA metadata identifying them as fully AI-generated.

Importantly for creators, YouTube confirmed AI labels will not affect monetisation eligibility or recommendation rankings.

The changes also align with Google’s broader AI push following the launch of Gemini Omni at Google I/O 2026 – a multimodal AI system combining video, image, audio and editing tools.

Google is simultaneously rolling out new AI remixing features for YouTube Shorts, including AI-generated restyling and synthetic video editing tools.

YouTube said the updated labelling system aims to strike a balance between “transparency and creator control” as AI-generated media becomes increasingly common across the platform.