YouTube Brandishes A New Weapon In War Against AI Deepfake Videos

In the face of ever-growing generative AI usage and YouTube's own dabbling with those features, Google has announced an important safeguard for creators on the platform—Likeness Detection. Likeness Detection is a new feature YouTube is testing that allows creators to automatically search YouTube for videos that seem to use their AI-generated likeness and motion to either copyright strike or take down the video. There are checks and balances in place for such video removals, but they do trend toward allowing parodies or obviously fictional depictions to slide. This is actually an important caveat. While some would argue creators in this position should have the right to remove anything they deem damaging that uses their likeness, fair use must be taken into consideration.


Unlike the AI-automated age detection feature being deployed to YouTube, enforcing Likeness Detection on the platform will require users to not only provide Google with a 3D scan of your face by photographing it at multiple angles, but also a copy of your ID. While the controversies around ID requirements online are noted, it does at least seem reasonable in this scenario that you have to prove your identity before enforcing your ownership of it across the rest of the platform.

On the surface this seems like a pretty clear-cut improvement to YouTube and its feature-set, though it may prove insignificant in the face of an ever-growing tide of AI generated content coming onto the platform. While YouTube keeping some creator-first principles is certainly welcome, some serious steps need to be taken to protect creators from an onslaught of unauthorized content. This is a step in that direction, as are the disclosure requirements and content labels introduced in November.