South Korea will require advertisers to clearly disclose when endorsements are made by AI-generated characters, as regulators move to prevent consumers from mistaking virtual personalities for real people.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission said Sunday that revised advertising review guidelines will take effect June 1, establishing new standards for advertisements that use artificial intelligence-generated figures to recommend or endorse products and services.

Under the updated rules, marketers must prominently indicate that an endorser is a virtual character. The guidelines also warn that advertisements could be deemed deceptive if AI-generated personalities are portrayed as offering recommendations based on genuine personal experience or actual product use.

The revisions form part of the commission’s broader efforts to update advertising regulations as generative AI becomes increasingly common in marketing campaigns.

For text-based platforms such as blogs and online communities, advertisers will be required to include phrases such as “contains a virtual character” in the title or opening section of sponsored content. In photo and video advertisements, labels identifying virtual characters must remain visible near the AI-generated figure while it appears on screen.

The commission said the measures are intended to ensure that consumers can readily recognise when an advertising spokesperson is not a real person, helping them make more informed purchasing decisions.

The new rules amend guidelines used to determine whether endorsements and testimonials violate South Korea’s Fair Labeling and Advertising Act.

Regulators said they will actively monitor advertising practices and seek corrective action against companies that fail to comply with the disclosure requirements, reflecting growing scrutiny of the use of AI-generated content in commercial marketing.

• This story was originally published on The Korea Bizwire.