Itch.io requires all creators to make AI-generated content public

Amid an ongoing conversation about the presence of AI in tabletop gaming, online marketplace itch.io has announced that it will require all creators on the site to disclose whether their projects include AI-generated content. Itch.io’s disclosure policy is not an outright ban, but will make it easier for tabletop fans who oppose the controversial and ecologically harmful technology to prevent AI-generated content from being purchased.

According to the announcement from itch.io founder and CEO Leaf Corcoran, all asset creators on the platform must classify the content they have currently uploaded to the site. All products containing AI-generated art will be tagged as such, while users who specifically mark their content as human-generated will receive a ‘no-ai’ tag.

There will be a grace period for creators to categorize their products, with a bulk tagging tool available for publishers who have a large number of products. “Generative AI assets (even if retrofitted) that are not tagged will no longer be eligible for indexing on our browsing pages,” Corcoran explains. In response to a comment, Corcoran also clarified that if users lie about the presence of AI-generated content in their products, or are seen omitting disclosure tags, they will not be removed from the site, but will be removed from indexing. on the discovery page: the main way new games are introduced to potential buyers.

On the itch quality guidelines pagethe company stated that the implementation of this policy was “due to legal ambiguity surrounding the rights associated with generative AI content.” Content created from generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion is largely trained on datasets consisting of visual and text-based art without the consent of the original creators, who are the subject of some legal disputes And lawsuits.