It's film festival season, and over the past few months, we’ve been excited to see so many Vimeo customers win awards at Cannes, Tribeca, and Sundance. In a world of algorithm-driven video clips, these festivals remind us of the value of human curation. Many great filmmakers tell us time and time again how the genuineness of our human-curated Vimeo Staff Picks encouraged them to get started or to keep going.
As algorithms and generative AIs reshape video content, there are many wonderful opportunities to accelerate storytelling. However, we hear your concerns about authenticity. At Vimeo, we aspire to be a place that celebrates and protects the creator with transparency and trust, and have already begun taking proactive measures to ensure Vimeo remains a platform where creators and viewers alike can understand the origins of the content they encounter.
Today, we're going even further in announcing important updates to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines, which ask creators to label AI-generated, synthetically-generated, or other meaningfully manipulated content that could be mistaken for real people, places, or events. We’re very supportive of using AI in the creative process — we've already seen our community experiment with the tool in ways we're excited to showcase. But this new policy reflects the growing global interest in transparency in the use of AI.
Why AI labeling matters
The rise of deepfakes and other AI-generated media has made it increasingly difficult to distinguish between what's real and what's synthetic, which can erode trust, spread misinformation, and have harmful consequences for individuals and society.
By introducing AI content labeling, we aim to:
- Uphold platform integrity: Combat the spread of misinformation, especially deepfakes that can be used to manipulate public opinion.
- Preserve content authenticity: Maintain trust and integrity within the Vimeo community by reducing the risk of viewers being misled by inauthentic video content.
- Empower viewers: Provide you with information to understand the content you consume.
- Support creators: Help creators maintain their audience's trust by distinguishing their techniques.
How it works
Soon, you'll notice a label on videos indicating that creators have voluntarily disclosed their use of AI. This label will also appear on videos created using Vimeo's own AI tools. This indicator is not our opinion of the content's value — instead, like the ingredients on a food label, it’s for the benefit of our customers to be informed. Our long-term goal is to develop automated labeling systems that can reliably detect AI-generated content, further enhancing transparency and reducing the burden on creators.
We recommend labeling content that:
- Portrays a real person saying or doing something they didn't say or do.
- Alters footage of an actual event or location.
- Creates a lifelike scene that didn’t take place.
This includes content that has been partially or entirely altered or created using AI-powered audio, video, or image tools.
How to disclose AI-generated content
Creators can label their videos while uploading them (or do so later) from the Video settings page. Simply select a checkbox for AI-generated content with the option to select a checkbox for Audio or Visuals, or both.
What doesn't require labeling
Content that is clearly unrealistic, animated, includes obvious special effects, or uses AI for minor production assistance.
A collective responsibility
We’re excited to work with this community to shape the future of storytelling, as we have for the last two decades. We believe that a transparent platform is becoming an even more essential foundation for creators and viewers alike in this next generation of creativity. On behalf of everyone at Vimeo, thank you for taking this next step with us.
