AI and technology · 1 min read
Labeling an image as AI-made did little to change willingness to share it
People who saw labels believed a misleading post less. Deception warnings also lowered some intentions to engage.
The study, in plain language
A label can explain how an image was made or warn that a post could mislead. To compare these messages, two online experiments showed US participants posts with AI-generated images that fact-checkers had identified as misleading.
With a label, people believed the claims less than without a warning. A label that only identified AI origin showed little or no detectable change in intentions to share, comment, like, or seek more information. Falsity or manipulation warnings did lower some of these intentions.
Labels combining origin and potential deception also reduced belief compared with an unlabeled post. Process labels better informed people about how the image was made. The label’s wording mattered: it changed what information people received and which responses shifted.
The key idea
Deception warnings reduced belief. Knowing only that an image was made with AI showed no change in what people said they would do.
Something to think about
When an image has a label, check what it tells you: how it was made or whether someone flagged it as misleading. Those are different messages.
The original study
Labeling AI-generated media online
Source under CC BY 4.0. English adaptation and explanation by PaperFlow, with AI assistance. The text has been reorganized for a general audience; it is not the complete paper and does not imply endorsement by its authors.
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