The independent games platform Itch.io announced this Tuesday (3) the removal of several terabytes of content generated by artificial intelligence considered spam. The company also expanded AI-use disclosure requirements and introduced new filters so that users can exclude projects identified as produced with the technology from search results.
The action was announced by Itch.io's institutional account on social media. In one of the posts, the platform said it had just deleted several terabytes of low-quality AI content, without disclosing the number of games, files or pages affected. The volume disclosed is a statement from the company, not an independent measurement.
Itch.io already prohibits the mass publication of automatically generated pages when it constitutes spam. Its guidelines include projects produced predominantly by algorithms, with minimal human intervention, content without significant curation and multiple virtually identical versions of the same product.
The rules do not prohibit all content developed with artificial intelligence. The platform allows the use of the technology in projects that offer value to users, provided its use is properly disclosed.
AI disclosure now covers books, comics and soundtracks
The main change for creators involves the requirement to complete the AI-use disclosure when creating or editing pages in the tabletop games, books, comic books and soundtracks categories. These categories now join the requirements already applied to graphic assets and other materials intended for game development.
For visitors, Itch.io expanded discovery controls, including the ability to filter projects with generative AI-use disclosures directly in search results. The measure allows content to be selected according to user preferences, without the presence of AI automatically implying an infraction.
The changes come after the platform reported, on November 1st, that the daily number of game pages created had doubled in two months, while downloads and purchases did not keep pace with that growth at the same proportion. The company did not present an analysis establishing how much of that increase was caused by AI-generated content.
With the new measures, Itch.io combines the removal of material classified as spam with filtering tools for visitors. For developers, compliance with the disclosure rules also influences the presence of their projects in the platform's discovery mechanisms.
