The biggest modding site in PC gaming is taking a stance on AI

is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.

The PC gaming mods repository Nexus Mods is making disclosures about AI mandatory for uploads of new mods, meaning that mod authors will have to declare “whether AI has been used in their work,” the site announced today as part of a big post about AI-generated content on the platform.

“One of the most consistent concerns we’ve heard is that it’s not clearly disclosed when AI has been used to create a mod,” according to the post from site owner Victor “Foledinho” Folmann. “We already have tags for AI-generated and AI-assisted mods, but we recognise that there’s a lot more we can do to make that information more accessible and clear for you all.” Any mods tagged as “AI-assisted” will also be required to include “a public explanation of how and where AI was used.” AI tags will also be “more prominent” on mod pages.

Folmann says Nexus Mods is “pro-human creativity” but “won’t introduce an outright ban on AI-generated mods.” As for why that is:

The answer is simple: AI is currently used throughout the whole process of creation, from script autocompletion to generation of textures, voices, and full assets, and it is difficult to draw a clear boundary between what is acceptable and unacceptable. An outright ban will not eliminate AI from the modding process but will prevent people from mentioning its use. We’d prefer the opposite; it should be out in the open, clearly labelled, and regulated according to the rules that we can implement on our platform.

Folmann notes that Nexus Mods won’t use mods to train AI and “will not sell or license them to anyone doing so.” However, the site is working on “clearer control” over how mods can be reused on others and strengthening attribution for when “a mod uses another Mod Author’s mod with the appropriate permissions.”

Nexus Mods is also making changes to the Recently Added section of the site to address a problem of mod authors uploading many mods at once, which makes other mods fall down down the page. “This is less of an issue related to AI, but it’s becoming much more prevalent as mod production is speeding up,” Folmann says. The changes include trying limits on how many mods from one author are shown at a time and “tighter restrictions” on uploads from new accounts. The platform is also launching controls to hide AI-generated content in game pages and on the homepage, and “next up,” in search.

Nexus Mods’ full AI policy is here, and mod authors have 60 days to update their existing mods to meet the requirements. The 60-day grace period ends on January 2nd, and after that time, the site will begin enforcing the rules.

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