A regulatory storm is quietly approaching the entire AI industry! The national mandatory standard GB45438-2025, "Methods for Identifying Artificial Intelligence Generated and Synthesized Content," will come into effect on September 1st. This seemingly modest technical document will actually completely reshape the rules of the domestic AIGC content ecosystem.
This is not a suggestion document that can be ignored, but a national standard with enforceable power. It strictly defines the entire chain of AI content, from generation, distribution to accountability. The core requirements are extremely clear: any AI-generated content must be marked with an identifiable AI attribute through technical means, allowing users and regulators to clearly recognize it.
The new standard establishes a dual identification system, divided into explicit identification and implicit identification. Explicit identification requires all AI-generated content to be labeled in a way that users can perceive, ensuring that anyone can directly identify the AI attribute of the content through their senses.
For text content, "Artificial Intelligence" or "AI Generated" must be clearly marked at the beginning, end, or appropriate location, with a font that is clearly visible, and must not be intentionally blurred or reduced. For image content, a label must be added at the corner, with a font size no smaller than 5% of the shortest side of the image, ensuring the label is clearly visible. Video content has stricter requirements, requiring the label to be displayed for at least 2 seconds on the initial screen, allowing the audience enough time to notice the AI attribute.
The identification method for audio content is quite creative, requiring a voice prompt of "AI Generated" at the beginning, or playing a specific Morse code rhythm (short, long, short, short). Even for interactive applications like AI customer service, a clear prompt such as "Provided by AI" must be continuously displayed at the bottom of the interface or in the chat area.
The technical requirements for implicit identification are more profound, involving metadata writing at the file level. Each AI-generated content must embed JSON format identification data within the file, with field names containing the "AIGC" identifier. These metadata include key information such as AI generation confirmation status, the provider of the generation service, the content dissemination platform, unique number, and digital signature or hash verification.
The scope of responsibility determination is broader than most people imagine. The standard clearly states that responsibility is not only on the generation service provider, but also applies to content dissemination service providers. This means that any platform that allows users to publish AI content, regardless of its size, must bear corresponding identification management responsibilities.
The consequences of violating the regulations are also serious. Platforms may face measures such as traffic restrictions, rectification, or even being taken offline. The access applications of model service providers may be directly rejected during industry entry and filing approval stages. The generated content may be marked by risk control systems as having an unknown source, leading to limited dissemination. The most severe consequence is that if there are disputes involving fraud synthesis, face replacement, or misleading virtual humans, failing to provide complete content sources and responsibility chains could lead to legal risks.
This standard poses a fundamental product question for AI models and application companies: how to implement structured identification processing for all AI content at the system architecture level. As a key link in the responsibility chain, relevant enterprises need to take full responsibility.
From a technical implementation perspective, this requires companies to consider the integration of the identification system during product design, including front-end display logic, back-end metadata writing, content distribution tracking, and other dimensions. For products already launched, a systematic transformation and upgrade is needed to ensure compliance with the new standard requirements.
The strictness of regulatory enforcement may exceed the expectations of most practitioners. This is not just a technical standard, but a systematic layout of national AI content governance. In the current context of rapid development of AI technology, establishing a clear content identification and responsibility system has become a necessary measure to maintain the healthy development of the information environment.
For the vast majority of AI professionals, there is less than a month until the official implementation, and they need to quickly prepare for compliance. Whether it's model developers, application platforms, or content distribution service providers, they should immediately assess the compliance status of their business and develop corresponding technical transformation and process optimization plans.
This compliance transformation is not only a challenge, but may also become an opportunity for industry restructuring. Enterprises that can quickly adapt to the new regulations and establish a complete identification system will gain a first-mover advantage in future competition. Those who ignore compliance requirements, however, may face serious business risks.
The standardized development of the AI industry is unstoppable, and professionals need to approach this change with a more cautious and responsible attitude, ensuring that they strictly comply with regulatory requirements while promoting technological innovation, and jointly drive the healthy and sustainable development of the industry.