Beijing calls for labeling of generative AI

Amid the DeepSeek mania that’s sweeping from China to the rest of the globe, the Chinese government is demanding that AI companies provide labels for any and all AI-generated media they produce.

The rules, which were announced Friday and will go into effect on Sept. 1, mandate that any generative AI has to either explicitly signal that it was produced by AI — such as through a watermark — or it needs to encode that information in its metadata.

“The Labeling Law will help users identify disinformation and hold service suppliers responsible for labeling their content,” the Cyberspace Administration of China wrote in a statement, translated by Bloomberg. “This is to reduce the abuse of AI-generated content.”

It’s unclear how Chinese companies will comply. Critics of watermarking requirements in the US have warnedthat watermarks are easily removed or manipulated. The relationship between Beijing and China’s tech sector is always a push and pull — it’s unclear whether the government will be cheery about its thriving private actors for long, or institute additional rules like this one to rein them in and reassert dominance.