The EU will start enforcing new transparency rules for AI-generated content and interactive systems from Sunday under the EU AI Act. Deepfakes and other AI-created material must be clearly labelled, and users must be told when they are interacting with an AI system. New obligations apply to generative AI systems placed on the market after Sunday, while additional transparency duties for existing systems take effect on December 2. A voluntary labelling code published in June has over 180 signatories.
EU Begins Enforcing AI Labelling and Transparency Rules — Deepfakes Must Be Labeled
A smartphone screen shows several AI applications, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI, Grok, and DeepSeek. Artificial intelligence applications tend to tell users what they want to hear and validate their actions excessively, according to a study by researchers at two US universities. (is associated with: «EU to start rolling out AI labelling obligations») Philip Dulian/dpa
The European Union will begin enforcing new transparency and labelling obligations for AI-generated content and interactive AI systems from Sunday under the EU AI Act. The rules require that deepfakes and other AI-created material be clearly labelled and that users are informed when they are interacting with an AI system.
"AI is a transformative technology that can bring extraordinary benefits to our people and businesses," European Commission Vice‑President Henna Virkkunen said on Friday. "But we are also seeing that harms can occur if AI is not properly designed and used and the most advanced models create risks on an entirely new scale."
As a first step, the new obligations will apply to generative AI systems that are newly placed on the EU market after Sunday. Certain transparency duties for systems already in use will take effect on December 2, giving operators additional time to comply with disclosure requirements.
The European Commission says the measures aim to reduce deception and manipulation online and to help people make informed choices about the content they encounter. Platforms and providers will need to adopt clear labelling practices so users can distinguish human-made from AI-generated material, including synthetic images, audio and text.
In June the Commission published a voluntary code of conduct for marking and labelling AI-created content; more than 180 organizations have signed the code so far. The voluntary code complements the binding provisions in the AI Act and reflects industry interest in clearer transparency standards.
Compliance will be monitored by EU authorities, and further guidance is expected as regulators and platforms adapt to the new requirements. Observers say the rules are an important step toward improving online trust, though implementation challenges remain for developers and platforms using advanced generative models.
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