Nexus Mods makes AI disclosure mandatory for new mod uploads

Nexus Mods made AI disclosure mandatory for new mod uploads on Nov. 3, 2026, requiring creators to state whether they used artificial intelligence and to explain how and where they applied it.

Nexus Mods said it does not ban AI-generated mods because creators use artificial intelligence throughout creation, and a line between acceptable and unacceptable use is difficult to draw. The company said a blanket ban would merely stop creators from mentioning AI. AI-generated mods remain welcome under rules covering permissions, transparency, presentation and conduct. Community representative Foledinho, also known as Victor, released the announcement.

Creators uploading new mods must declare whether AI was used and, if so, explain how and where it was used. AI-assisted pages must name the tools, software or models involved and identify exactly which AI-generated outputs remain in the final mod. Nexus Mods can require version-control history as evidence and may use code understanding tests in disputes.

Players are receiving controls for AI content preferences on game pages and the homepage, with search and game-homepage display controls planned next. Nexus Mods is also testing per-author limits in Recently Added and applying tighter upload restrictions to new accounts. On mod pages, AI tags will sit directly after adult-content tags to make disclosures easier to spot.

Settings for AI training and tool usage, as well as forks and parallel versions, will default to Ask Me, meaning creators need direct written permission for fine-tuning, training, dataset compilation, project forks and automated workflows. Forks or variants of actively maintained mods must have documented permission unless the original page expressly permits them, and derivative works must show credit to every original creator and provide a link to the source. Nexus Mods will not host material built on another author’s work without required permission.

Nexus Mods pledged not to use hosted mods to train artificial intelligence, and said it will not sell or license those mods to anyone planning to use them for training. According to Nexus Mods, mods tagged AI-Generated Content collected 2.13% of all Donation Points in 2026 up to the announcement date. The platform will keep its reward rules unchanged because removing income after disclosure might discourage honesty.

Existing mods get 60 days, from Nov. 3, 2026, to Jan. 2, 2027, to meet the new disclosure and permission requirements. After that deadline, staff will contact authors about missing disclosures or permissions. If authors do not comply after staff notice, the platform can take moderation action, restrict accounts, issue warnings or remove a mod. The company warned that spotting AI-generated material is not an exact science, so early enforcement will rely mainly on manual review and community reports, and some incorrect or missing labels could slip through.

When safety or hidden-behavior concerns remain unresolved, staff can ask for source code, although authors do not have to provide it. Nexus Mods may stop hosting a mod if concerns persist.

Passing off AI-generated images as real in-game screenshots counts as misrepresenting a mod. The announcement sets no limits on unclear cases such as text overlays, enhancements or artwork for mods without visual elements.

itch.io took down a couple of terabytes of material it called AI slop shortly before the Nexus Mods announcement on Nov. 2, 2026, and added a filter that removes any listing carrying a generative AI disclosure, since the platform requires that disclosure for every listing. itch.io said in a Bluesky post, “we’re adding Generative AI disclosure filtering to few more places on the site where it was critically lacking”.

Nexus Mods said on Apr. 27, 2023 that AI-generated mod content was not a violation by itself but could be removed after a credible complaint from an affected creator or rights holder, and the earlier statement planned no submission-guideline changes. A July 31, 2026 Shacknews report said Nexus Mods had split generative AI into categories such as AI-Generated Content, AI Media and AI Assisted, covering AI-generated code, voices, textures and promotional material. That report said failure to tag mods appropriately would result in moderation action, and purposeful abuse of the tagging system would bring immediate punishment if proven.

From November 2025 to October 2026, Nexus Mods manually reviewed and cleared 3,164 uploads, a figure over four times the prior annual total. It quarantined about 20,000 uploads for extra security checks, a level twelve times the previous year.