Nexus Mods makes AI disclosure mandatory for all new mod uploads

Nexus Mods, the largest mod repository in PC gaming, will require every author uploading a new mod to declare whether AI was used in their work, under a mandatory disclosure policy the site announced today. The rule gives existing mod authors a 60-day grace period, ending January 2nd, after which Nexus Mods will begin enforcing the requirements.

The announcement came in a lengthy post from site owner Victor "Foledinho" Folmann, laying out the platform's position on AI-generated content. The stakes for the modding community are considerable: Nexus Mods sits at the center of a hobbyist ecosystem where AI tools now touch everything from script autocompletion to generated textures, voices, and full assets, and where the boundary between human and machine authorship has become increasingly difficult to police.

What does the new policy require?

The core obligation is disclosure. Authors of newly uploaded mods must declare whether AI has been used in their work. The requirement does not stop at a simple yes-or-no checkbox.

"One of the most consistent concerns we've heard is that it's not clearly disclosed when AI has been used to create a mod," Folmann wrote. "We already have tags for AI-generated and AI-assisted mods, but we recognise that there's a lot more we can do to make that information more accessible and clear for you all."

The policy adds several concrete mechanisms:

• Mods tagged as "AI-assisted" must include a public explanation of how and where AI was used.
• AI tags will display more prominently on mod pages.
• Authors have 60 days from the announcement to update existing mods to meet the requirements.
• Enforcement begins after the grace period ends on January 2nd.

The distinction between "AI-generated" and "AI-assisted" matters for how the rules bite. A fully generated mod and a mod where AI merely helped autcomplete a script fall under different labels, and the AI-assisted category carries the extra explanation requirement.

Why did Nexus Mods refuse an outright ban?

Folmann framed the decision as a choice between transparency and prohibition, and came down firmly on the side of transparency. Nexus Mods, he wrote, is "pro-human creativity" but "won't introduce an outright ban on AI-generated mods."

His reasoning, quoted in full from the announcement:

"The answer is simple: AI is currently used throughout the whole process of creation, from script autocompletion to generation of textures, voices, and full assets, and it is difficult to draw a clear boundary between what is acceptable and unacceptable. An outright ban will not eliminate AI from the modding process but will prevent people from mentioning its use. We'd prefer the opposite; it should be out in the open, clearly labelled, and regulated according to the rules that we can implement on our platform."

The argument is a pragmatic one. Because AI tools now permeate the creation pipeline at every stage, a ban would be unenforceable in practice and would merely drive usage underground, removing the very disclosures that users have demanded. Labels, in Folmann's formulation, do the enforcement work that bans cannot.

The position puts Nexus Mods on a different path from platforms and communities that have moved to exclude AI-generated content entirely, and it does so at the scale of the hobby's single largest distribution hub.

What is happening to mod training data?

The policy also draws a hard line on AI training. Folmann states that Nexus Mods won't use mods to train AI and "will not sell or license them to anyone doing so."

That commitment addresses one of the most contentious questions facing creative communities: whether user-uploaded work becomes fodder for model training without consent. Nexus Mods has answered no.

Alongside the training-data pledge, the site is working on two related protections:

• "Clearer control" over how mods can be reused by others on the platform.
• Strengthened attribution for cases where "a mod uses another Mod Author's mod with the appropriate permissions."

The attribution change targets a longstanding friction point in modding culture, where authors build on each other's work under specific permission terms, and it becomes more pressing as AI accelerates the pace of derivative creation.

How will the site handle AI spam?

Nexus Mods is also reworking the Recently Added section of the site, a change aimed at a problem only partially connected to AI: mod authors uploading many mods at once, which pushes other creators' work down the page.

"This is less of an issue related to AI, but it's becoming much more prevalent as mod production is speeding up," Folmann said.

The connection to AI is indirect but real. Faster mod production, partly driven by generative tools, floods the new-arrivals feed and buries human-made work. The planned changes include:

• Trial limits on how many mods from a single author appear at a time.
• "Tighter restrictions" on uploads from new accounts.

Both measures function as anti-spam guardrails for an ecosystem where the cost of producing and publishing a mod has dropped sharply.

Can users filter out AI content entirely?

Yes, and that capability is expanding. Nexus Mods is launching controls to hide AI-generated content in game pages and on the homepage. Search is next: hiding AI-generated content in search results is, in Folmann's words, "next up."

The filtering tools give users who object to AI content a practical remedy that does not depend on the site banning anything. Combined with mandatory disclosure, the approach shifts the decision from platform moderators to individual users, who can curate their own view of the catalog.

What happens on January 2nd?

The 60-day grace period is the policy's enforcement clock. Until January 2nd, existing mod authors can update their uploads to comply with the declaration and explanation requirements. After that date, Nexus Mods begins enforcing the rules against mods that have not been brought into compliance.

For new uploads, the disclosure requirement applies immediately under the announced policy.

The full AI policy is published on the Nexus Mods site, and the announcement frames all of these measures — mandatory disclosure, prominent tagging, reuse controls, attribution strengthening, upload limits, and AI-content filters — as parts of a single posture: AI stays, but it stays labeled.

The move sets a template other creative platforms may watch closely, because it resolves the ban-versus-permit binary with a third option: radical labeling backed by enforcement deadlines. Whether disclosure requirements can actually keep pace with AI-assisted creation at the scale of the hobby's largest repository will become clear once enforcement begins on January 2nd.