Meta Platforms could penalize users who fail to label AI-generated audio and visual content posted on its platforms, its top policy executive said on Tuesday.
The comments were made by Nick Clegg, the company’s president of global affairs, during an interview with Reuters.
Clegg said he felt confident that technology companies could label AI-generated images reliably at this point, but said tools to mark audio and video content were more complicated and still being developed.
“Even though the technology is not yet fully mature, particularly when it comes to audio and video, the hope is that we can create a sense of momentum and incentive for the rest of the industry to follow,” Clegg said.
In the interim, Meta would start requiring people to label their own altered audio and video content, and could apply penalties if they failed to do so, Clegg added. He did not describe the penalties.
CBC News has reached out to Meta for more information.
Meta will label AI-generated images on its platforms
This photo, taken in New York, Thursday, July 6, 2023, shows Meta’s new app Threads. Meta will apply labels to AI-generated images posted to its Facebook, Instagram and Threads services, in an effort to signal to users that the images — which in many cases resemble real photos — are actually digital creations. (Richard Drew/The Associated Press)
The comments came following Clegg’s announcement in a blog post that Meta would begin detecting and labelling images generated by other companies’ artificial intelligence services in the coming months, using a set of invisible markers built into the files.
Meta will apply the labels to any content carrying the markers posted to its Facebook, Instagram and Threads services, in an effort to signal to users that the images — which in many cases resemble real photos — are actually digital creations.
The company already labels any content that was generated using its own AI tools. Once the new system is up and running, Meta will do the same for images created on services run by OpenAI, Microsoft, Adobe, Midjourney, Shutterstock and Alphabet’s Google, Clegg said.
He added during the interview that there was currently no viable mechanism to label written text generated by AI tools like ChatGPT, saying, “that ship has sailed.”
A Meta spokesperson declined to tell Reuters whether the company would apply labels to generative AI content shared on its encrypted messaging service WhatsApp.
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The announcement provides an early glimpse into an emerging system of standards technology companies are developing to mitigate the potential harms associated with generative AI technologies, which can spit out fake but realistic-seeming content in response to simple prompts.
The approach builds off a template established over the past decade by some of the same companies to co-ordinate the removal of banned content across platforms, including depictions of mass violence and child exploitation.
Meta’s independent oversight board on Monday rebuked the company’s policy on misleadingly doctored videos, saying it was too narrow and that the content should be labelled rather than removed. Clegg said he broadly agreed with those critiques.
The board was right, he said, that Meta’s existing policy “is just simply not fit for purpose in an environment where you’re going to have way more synthetic content and hybrid content than before.”
He cited the new labelling partnership as evidence that Meta was already moving in the direction the board had proposed.
MTY Food Group Inc. says its profit and revenue both slid in its most recent quarter.
The restaurant franchisor and operator says its net income attributable to owners totalled $34.9 million in its third quarter, compared with $38.9 million a year earlier.
The results for the period ended Aug. 31 amounted to $1.46 per diluted share, down from $1.59 per diluted share a year prior.
The company behind 90 brands including Manchu Wok and Mr. Sub attributed the fall to impairment charges on property, plants and equipment along with intangibles assets.
Its revenue decreased slightly to $292.8 million in the quarter from $298 million a year ago.
While CEO Eric Lefebvre saw the quarter as a sign that the company’s ongoing restructuring is starting to bear fruits, he said the business was also hampered by significant delays in construction and permitting that resulted in fewer locations opening.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
Taiga Motors Corp. says the Superior Court of Québec has approved its sale to a British electric boat entrepreneur.
The Montreal-based maker of snowmobiles and watercraft says it will be purchased by Stewart Wilkinson.
Wilkinson’s family office is behind marine electrification brands that include Vita, Evoy, and Aqua superPower.
Wilkinson and Taiga did not reveal the terms or value of the deal but say Wilkinson will assume Taiga’s debt to Export Development Canada and has committed to funding Taiga’s business plan.
The companies say the transaction will allow them to achieve greater economies of scale and deliver high-performance products at compelling prices to accelerate the electric transition.
The sale comes months after Taiga sought bankruptcy protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act to cope with a cash crunch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
Toronto-Dominion Bank is facing fines totalling about US$3.09 billion from U.S. regulators in connection with failures of its anti-money laundering safeguards.
The bank also received a cease-and-desist order and non-financial sanctions from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that put limits on its growth in the U.S. after it was found that TD had “significant, systemic breakdowns in its transaction monitoring program.”
