Summary
The owners of Nexus Mods have ruled out instituting an outright ban on AI-generated works being uploaded the site, instead opting to expand their current rules on modders disclosing how they’ve used AI in making their mods. This latest move to address the waves of AI-created or AI-thumbnailed mods now hitting Nexus Mods on a daily basis follows Nexus’ modus operandi up to this point, which has been simply to try and ensure AI usage is clearly labelled so prospective downloaders can make informed decisions. “We won’t introduce an outright ban on AI-generated mods,” Nexus Mods owner and CEO Victor ‘Foledinho’ Folmann wrote in a news post. “You may ask me why, since that is not the solution some of you were looking for. 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. “This doesn’t mean that any work done using AI will get removed; AI-generated mods are welcome on our platform provided that they meet certain criteria regarding permissions, transparency, presentation, and conduct. Mod Authors should have a chance to decide about the further use of their work, and you should be able to decide for yourselves how much AI-based content you want to see, whether more, less, or no content at all. “As for our own position: Nexus Mods will not use your mods to train AI and will not sell or license them to anyone doing so. We refused to do that in the past, and we will refuse to do so in the future. Given such a variety of opinions within our community, not everyone will agree with any decision taken. These are the ones we believe are right for Nexus Mods today, and we’ll keep adjusting them as the tools evolve and as we see how these changes work in practice, with your feedback guiding that.” In terms of the changes which are being brought in to toughen up the site’s current three tag system design to make mods containing AI-generated content, AI media, or made with AI assistance easier to spot, Nexus are making AI disclosures mandatory for those uploading new mods. “What this means is that for mods tagged as AI-assisted, we’re also introducing a requirement for a public explanation of how and where AI was used, which should give you a better understanding of what you’re downloading, rather than leaving you to make assumptions on a tag alone,” Folmann wrote. “We’re also going to make AI tags on mod pages more prominent, displaying them immediately after adult-content tags so they’re easier to spot.” “While we hope these changes will encourage everyone to disclose their AI usage, to be honest, that’s not going to happen,” he continued. “Additionally, we are putting clear moderation standards in place, enforced with consequences for breaking the rules.” New “permission options covering AI usage and training, as well as forks and derivative mods” are also being worked on, with the hopes of giving modders more control over how their works can be reused. Finally, Folmann noted that the site are “investing in security tooling and specialised staff” to address concerns over generative AI making “bespoke malicious code hidden inside mods” more prevalent. Mod makers are being given a 60 day grace period to make sure their existing works meet the new rules, which’ll run until January 2nd. As you can imagine, the comments section of this Nexus Mods announcement is lively. Over on LinkedIn, Folmann patted himself on the back a bit about the mixed reception being an indicator the site are going about this the right way. “Some wanted a full ban. Some think we went too far. That tells me we drew the line where the real argument is,” he declared, adding that “transparency beats prohibition”. He also reiterated that his vision is of “modding that’s Spotify-easy to play and GitHub-powerful to create, with humans in charge”. I reckon that with or without these changes, in the absence of its owners taking a strong stand browsing Nexus Mods is going to carry on be more of an exercise in ducking dodgy stuff than it was prior to most games’ pages being splattered with the likes of icky AI-baked Geralt clones standing where decent screenshots of the actual game would’ve been more than adequate.