Provenance Lens
EU AI Act Article 50: AI Content Labelling
Article 50 applies from 2 August 2026. Learn which machine-readable marks and disclosures it requires, where provenance checks fit and their limits.
In force since 2 August 2026
The European Commission says the Article 50 transparency duties apply from 2 August 2026. Providers of generative AI must, within the law's scope and exceptions, make generated or manipulated outputs detectable through effective machine-readable marking.
Machine-readable marks and visible disclosure differ
Providers and deployers have different duties. The Commission's guidance says a deployer cannot rely only on a provider's machine-readable mark when disclosing a deepfake. A visible notice and a technical provenance record therefore serve different purposes.
Where a provenance report helps
A provenance report can record which technical signals a particular tool checked at a particular time. It does not decide whether an organisation meets Article 50; that requires the applicable law, the use context and responsible legal review.
What a report cannot prove
- A valid signature proves who signed a manifest, not that the manifest's claims are true.
- Metadata is trivially editable. Treat generator fields as an indication, never as proof.
- Hidden Unicode characters have many innocent causes, including ordinary copy-paste.