Meta is reportedly marking real photos taken by photographers as “Made by AI”. Many users have reported that Meta is adding the AI-generated label to real photos over the last few months. It is to be noted that the label shows when the photo is viewed on mobile and not on web.
According to TechCrunch, a technology news website, a photo of a basketball game by Pete Souza, former White House photographer, was labelled as AI-generated. Souza says that he was unable to remove the label from the photo.
Even basic edits on Adobe are resulting in images being marked as AI generated. Meta has been adding labels of Made by AI to real photos when generative AI tools like Adobe’s Generative Fill were used to remove small objects. Some photographers have also argued that any editing to the image should be disclosed.
Meta spokesperson Kate McLaughlin told the American technology news website The Verge that the company is aware of the issue and is evaluating its approach “so that [its] labels reflect the amount of AI used in an image.”
Meta had announced in February that it will add Made with AI labels to images uploaded on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. This was applicable especially for images created using third party software like Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Adobe, Shutterstock and Midjourney. Since May, Meta has marked images as Made with AI. Meta had earlier informed in a blog post that it utilises metadata to detect the use of AI tools.