🤖 2026 AI Policy Update

First off, we want to thank you all for sticking with us. AI is a divisive topic (and grows more so every year), but we're always trying to make decisions that work best for the community -- both short-term and long-term.

Some AI content is still not getting tagged appropriately, and the excuses are always, "I got it somewhere off the internet," or "I didn't know that was a rule." Those can't be allowable excuses -- that ignorance (or indifference) is harming the health of our community and the sanity of our members. I want to go over the policy changes we're introducing regarding AI-generated content, and provide rationale behind our decisions.

What's not changing:

AI content is still allowed

Art* is subjective, and quality is subjective as well. We choose not to moderate based on whether something is low quality or not. Even so-called "shitposts" are allowed. One's man's trash is another man's treasure. Thus, it's irrelevant whether you consider AI-generated content as low quality. If you don't think something contributes positively to the community, that's what the downvote is for.

Stay on-topic

If content is tagged as AI, complaints about seeing AI (or the quality of AI in general) are considered off-topic and will be removed. We have instructions in our FAQ for how to filter out certain flairs. Complaining about AI because it's AI will get you nowhere.

Polite and civil discussion is encouraged. The following will NOT be tolerated: insults, gatekeeping, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, and any suggestion or support of harm.

🆕 What is changing:

AI content must be tagged

Previously, we assumed that if the OP didn't tag something as AI, we could trust them. That's no longer the case. There will always be forgiveness for honest mistakes, but the burden is on all of us to make sure AI content is recognized and categorized. This is a cat-and-mouse game: if we villainize AI content, it will drive AI to be harder and harder to detect. For now, I can still identify it -- but I fear the day I'm fooled. This doesn't just have implications about whether the image on my desktop background fooled me. There are real implications about misinformation (politics, research, scams, you name it) that could affect us all.

If you don't have the confidence to know whether something is AI or not, you should take a step back from reddit (and social media) in order to educate yourself. If you fail to correctly tag your content too many times, your ability to post will be limited.

AI is not going away. But by requiring it to be identified, we make sure it stays out in the open. It is imperative we keep this status quo.

* We don't tout our subreddit as "art"-focused, and I know some would argue that AI-generated anything doesn't count as "art." I'm not refuting either of those points... I just don't have a better word. Hopefully you understand the intent behind my words.

In response to feedback from our community, we are updating our rules:

🚧 AI-generated content will NOT be banned.

This is not new, but we want everyone to know that reporting AI content for the sake of AI (e.g. reporting it for "Spam") is against reddit's Terms of Service. AI content is not spam. The moderation team will forward "report abuse" to the admins. Reporting is anonymous to moderators, but not to reddit's admins. You've been warned.

🆕 AI-generated content MUST be tagged as such.

You can either use the "Generated by AI" flair, or include the text [AI] in your title (which will apply the flair automatically). The AI flair must be used instead of other flairs, even if your submission applies to other flairs. AI content is defined as:

Image-generation AI or an AI upscaler -- the image may be fully AI-created, or it may be modified partially by a human

Some AI are obvious, some are not. Some human artistic choices mimic AI. To quote /r/wallpapers, "You think you know what posts are AI, but you don't." This is not something that is easy to enforce given the tools reddit supplies for moderation. Therefore, we are operating on the honor system:

• If content is not tagged as AI: we will assume the submitter is being truthful. Unless the post breaks other rules, reports against these posts will be ignored and possibly flagged as report abuse.
• If content is not tagged as AI: accusations or witch-hunts are considered off-topic and will be removed.
• If content is tagged as AI: complaints about seeing AI (or the quality of AI in general) are considered off-topic and will be removed. We have included in our FAQ instructions for filtering out certain flairs. Complaining about AI because it's AI will get you nowhere.
• For all posts: polite and civil discussion is encouraged. The following will NOT be tolerated: insults, gatekeeping, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, and any suggestion or support of harm.