The EU AI Act's Article 50: what changes for people who publish text
Since 2 August 2026, AI-generated content must carry machine-readable marks and some AI-written text must be disclosed. What that means in practice, and how to document human review.
Article 50 of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act sets transparency rules that apply from 2 August 2026. They affect two groups: the companies that provide AI systems, and the people and organisations who publish what those systems produce. This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice.
Providers must mark AI output
Providers of systems that generate text, images, audio or video must mark the output in a machine-readable way, so it can be detected as artificially generated. In practice this means watermarks and metadata such as C2PA Content Credentials. Systems that only assist with standard editing, without substantially changing the input, are exempt.
Publishers must disclose some AI text
If you publish AI-generated or manipulated text to inform the public on matters of public interest, you must disclose that it was artificially generated, unless a person reviewed or edited it and someone holds editorial responsibility for the publication.
Three practical consequences
- Don't strip the marks. Watermarks and metadata are how the system is meant to work. Probator shows hidden characters and AI marks but never removes them.
- Marks get lost anyway. Copy-paste, format conversion and paraphrasing remove many marks. Detection remains necessary for text that arrives unmarked.
- Document your human review. If you rely on editorial review, keep a record of it. A Probator certificate can record a first check of a draft, a later check of the final text, who reviewed it, and how much of it changed.
How Probator helps
- Every check reports machine-readable AI marks found in PDF, Word and HTML files and in the text.
- Certificates can include a signed human review record, verifiable by anyone at probator.ai/verify.
- After creating a certificate you can copy a disclosure label in six languages: written by a person, AI-assisted with human review, or AI-generated. You choose the one that is true.
Whether a disclosure is required depends on who you are and how you publish. Check with your adviser.