AI Labelling Rules Nearing Finalisation: IT Secretary S Krishnan

Government's plans to mandate labelling of AI-generated content will empower users to scrutinise such content and ensure that synthetic output is not masquerading as truth, IT Secretary S Krishnan said on Tuesday, adding that the rules are nearing finalisation.

The AI labelling rules will impose obligations on two key sets of players, one, the providers of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Grok and Gemini, and on social media platforms. Players in both these cases are large tech firms that have the technical know-how and solutions to implement such labelling, Krishnan said.

"Labelling something as AI-generated content offers people the opportunity to examine it...you know that it is AI-generated and that it is not masquerading as the truth," Krishnan said, speaking at an event, 'Building Safe Spaces for AI Impact: Regulatory and Private Sandboxes', organised by industry body Nasscom.

Krishnan said the draft rules are undergoing legal vetting and are in the final stages.

In October, the government had proposed changes to IT rules, mandating the clear labelling of AI-generated content and increasing the accountability of large platforms like Facebook and YouTube for verifying and flagging synthetic information. The move aims to curb user harm from deepfakes and misinformation.

The IT ministry noted that deepfake audio, videos, and synthetic media going viral on social platforms demonstrates the potential of generative AI to create "convincing falsehoods", where such content can be "weaponised" to spread misinformation, damage reputations, manipulate or influence elections, or commit financial fraud.

The proposed amendments to IT rules provide a clear legal basis for labelling, traceability, and accountability related to synthetically-generated information, the IT ministry had said at that time.

The ministry had invited comments from stakeholders on the draft amendment mandating labelling, visibility, and metadata embedding for synthetically generated or modified information to distinguish such content from authentic media.

The draft rules involved mandating companies to label AI-generated content with prominent markers and identifiers, covering a minimum of 10% of the visual display or the initial 10% of the duration of an audio clip.

To another question on whether there is a need for an AI Act, Krishnan said while the government is not ruling it out, the time has not yet come for a separate law.

"We are not having it tomorrow, or in the next session of Parliament, but in future we may need an Act. We have to see how we approach that regulation. We believe right now, the tools that we have, in terms of laws and Acts, are adequate to cover the requirements, but we don't rule out the possibility of having to enact new legislation in order to address any concerns," Krishnan said on Tuesday.