Beyond AI-Generated Labels: Watermarking, Co-Creation, and Conflation of AI-Generation with Disinformation

Watermarking is often presented as a straightforward solution for distinguishing AI-generated from human-generated content, enabling platforms and regulators to trace synthetic content and detect AI-generated outputs at scale. This paper examines whether such mechanisms meaningfully address the epistemic and ethical challenges that arise in domains where the central concern is not the automation of content production, but the accuracy, intent, and deceptive potential of messages. We argue that extending watermark-based approaches to these settings is conceptually and practically misguided. Invisible watermarking encodes only model origin; when operationalized into visible AI-generated labels, it reduces complex creative processes to a misleading binary and provides no information about truthfulness. Such labels may stigmatize legitimate uses of generative tools while encouraging misplaced trust in unmarked content. Here we propose an alternative approach centered on process transparency and information literacy. We argue that these measures address the epistemic and ethical dimensions of AI-generated disinformation more effectively than visible watermark labels, reframing authorship as a transparent human practice rather than a binary indicator of machine involvement.