From 2 August, providers of AI systems operating in the EU will be required to disclose when users are interacting with a machine, and to add machine-readable marks to AI-generated or manipulated content, under new transparency rules issued by the European Commission. The measures form part of the bloc's landmark AI Act, aimed at making chatbots, AI agents and synthetic content more transparent and trustworthy for citizens, and mark a significant milestone as most of the Act comes into force with the Commission gaining enforcement powers over general-purpose AI models.

The rules cover interactive systems such as chatbots, synthetic audio, images, video and text, as well as deepfakes and AI-generated text on matters of public interest, unless the latter has undergone human editorial review. Simple editing tools like spellcheckers are exempt if they do not substantially alter content. The AI Act, first proposed in 2021 and in force since August 2024, has been rolled out in stages, having already banned certain biometric categorisation uses; however, in May, EU negotiators agreed to delay other elements, pushing rules for standalone high-risk AI systems to December 2027 and those for high-risk systems embedded in regulated products to August 2028.