EU AI Act Transparency Obligations Now In Force
From today, 2 August 2026, the EU AI Act’s Article 50 transparency obligations apply.
The rules impose different duties on providers (and deployers) of certain AI systems:
👉 Providers of AI systems that generate synthetic audio, images, video or text must ensure that their outputs are marked in a machine readable format and are detectable as artificially generated or manipulated, where technically feasible.
👉 Deployers publishing AI generated or manipulated image, audio or video that constitutes a deepfake must clearly disclose that it has been artificially generated or manipulated.
👉 Providers of AI systems designed to interact directly with people, including chatbots, must ensure that users are informed that they are interacting with AI (unless this is already obvious in the circumstances).
👉 Deployers publishing AI generated or manipulated text for the purpose of informing the public on matters of public interest must disclose its AI origin (this requirement does not apply where the content has undergone human review or editorial control and a person or organisation holds editorial responsibility for it).
The Act does not require every item of AI generated content to carry both a visible label and a digital watermark. It distinguishes between machine readable marking by system providers and visible disclosure in specified circumstances.
People using AI systems solely for personal, non professional activities are outside the deployer obligations. Evidently artistic, creative, satirical or fictional works are not completely exempt, but the disclosure may be made in a way that does not interfere with the display or enjoyment of the work.
A limited 4 month transition (ending on 2 December 2026) applies to the machine readable marking obligation for generative AI systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026 (it is not a general grace period covering all transparency duties).
It is worth noting that (as with GDPR), the Act has, what is termed, ‘extraterritorial reach’. This means that it can apply to providers outside the EU that place AI systems on the EU market (and to providers or deployers outside the EU where an AI system’s output is used in the EU).
Breaches of the Article 50 transparency obligations could result in fines of up to €15 million or, for an undertaking, up to 3% of its total worldwide annual turnover for the preceding financial year (the higher €35 million or 7% tier applies to prohibited AI practices under Article 5, not to Article 50 transparency violations generally).
Further details can be found here.
Image Attribution: OpenAI ChatGPT