BRUSSELS - Deepfakes and other AI-generated content must be labelled from Sunday, as the European Union’s sweeping artificial intelligence transparency rules kick in. The goal? To make sure Europeans immediately know whether the online content they see is real or fake.
The EU’s comprehensive AI law enters into force in stages. From Sunday, companies must ensure their AI systems like chatbots make it clear to users they are AI, or when an image or text has been created using AI, there must be a label saying so.
This can be done by integrating watermarks and other markers to allow the easy detection of AI-generated content. Firms face large fines if they don’t comply.
“Generative AI enables disinformation to be created at unprecedented scale, tailored to specific audiences, and disseminated with remarkable speed,” an EU official said.
Since AI is “making it increasingly difficult for all of us to distinguish what is real from what is synthetic”, the official said, the EU’s rules seek to “preserve citizens’ ability to trust what they see, hear, and read”.
