meta_id 3137285

On 8 May 2026, the European Commission published draft guidelines on transparency obligations for artificial intelligence (AI) systems under Article 50 of the AI Act, inviting stakeholder feedback through a targeted consultation. The guidelines aim to clarify the scope of transparency requirements and assist providers and deployers of interactive and generative AI systems in meeting their compliance obligations. The transparency rules will become applicable on 2 August 2026. Under these requirements, providers of AI systems must inform users when they are interacting with an AI system and implement machine-readable marks in generative AI systems to enable detection of synthetic content as AI-generated or manipulated. Deployers must inform people when they are exposed to deepfakes and AI-generated publications on matters of public interest, as well as when emotion recognition or biometric categorisation systems are deployed. The draft guidelines incorporate input from previous consultations and complement a parallel Code of Practice on transparency of AI-generated content, which will serve as a voluntary tool to support practical implementation of the AI Act's marking and labelling obligations. The consultation targets companies of all sizes—from startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to large companies—as well as other organisations developing and deploying AI systems. Stakeholders including providers, deployers, businesses, public authorities, academia, research institutions, and citizens are invited to participate. Responses must be submitted through the online questionnaire by 3 June 2026. Only responses received via the online platform will be considered and reflected in the final summary report. REFERENCES: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/consultations/consultation-draft-guidelines-transparency-obligations-under-ai-act