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APA Crediting Suggestions for Documentaries Using GenAI

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Third party materials (including music, footage and still images) are typically listed in a film’s end credits. The APA recommends that synthetic materials should be treated in much the same way. Providing credits for generated images or audio, and indicating when archival materials are modified with generative technologies, are a key part of maintaining transparency with viewers. Below are suggestions for formatting end credits. 

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Here is information filmmakers may want to include in their end credits:

  • The source materials used to train an AI model, such as a voice model

  • The software and version used to generate an audio-visual element

  • Software used to alter archival elements (such as use of GenAI software to extend, up-res, colorize or otherwise alter a primary source).

**Pro Tip: Tracking this information ahead of time in a Cue Sheet will make writing credits easy at the end!**

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Including GenAI elements in a film may also necessitate crediting the people who created that material. These could be written in their own section about artists directly involved with GenAI elements or with similar types of roles. 

 

Examples of end credit language (all examples below are fictional):

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  • Two minutes of footage of Marilyn Monroe as a child were created with [Generative AI tool] [version #]. The relative accuracy of clothing, time and place were confirmed by [name of historian/expert] from [credential, such as University, company or publication].

 

  • All photos of General Sherman were created with Generative AI, based upon [number of] paintings by [artists] from the 19th century. 

 

  • Twelve shots of Pangaea were created using Generative AI, based on satellite imagery from [Source] of the closest approximate location on Earth. 

 

  • Generated images of Shakespeare’s cast were altered by [name of graphic designer] under advisement from [name of historian]. 


Example Language for crediting GenAI artists and experts

 

GenAI Graphic Designer - John Doe 

 

Synthetic Voice Engineer - Jane Doe

 

GenAI elements confirmed for accuracy by - Jane and John Doe from XYZ University History Department​

**Please note that while crediting is an essential part of providing transparency, APA suggests it not be the only method employed. The nature and extent of the disclosure will vary based on the likelihood of audience confusion, the modality of the use, and other case-by-case factors that should be discussed with a film’s team and with legal counsel. For additional ideas of methods of transparency, please see Section 2 of the APA guidelines, or Tips for Transparency.**

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