What Article 50 of the AI Act actually means for you
On 2 August 2026, a new part of the EU AI Act started to apply: Article 50.
The AI Act itself has been in force since 2024. What changed on 2 August is that these specific transparency rules are now applicable.
In simple terms, Article 50 is about telling people when AI played a role.
If you use AI in your business, whether it’s writing captions, creating images or running a chatbot, here’s the two-minute version. No legal degree required.
You need to do something if....
You have a chatbot on your website.
Visitors need to know from the very first message that they’re talking to AI, not a human. Check that your chatbot actually displays this notice and that the setting is enabled. Don’t assume your vendor already took care of it.
You publish a deepfake.
A deepfake is a realistic AI-generated image, video or audio of a real person, place or event that is made to look genuine. Not every AI image is a deepfake. A stylised illustration or an obviously artificial graphic doesn’t fall into this category.
You publish AI-written content about a topic of public interest, such as health, safety, politics or the economy, without meaningful human review. That means someone has actually checked the content, stands behind it and takes editorial responsibility. A spell check isn’t enough. If a real person genuinely reviews the text before publication, you’re fine.
You use emotion recognition or biometric categorisation systems on people.
This is uncommon for most small businesses, but it’s one of the situations covered by Article 50.
What this does not mean
If ChatGPT helped you write your Instagram caption, you don’t need a label.
If you used AI to improve a product photo by adjusting the lighting, colours or removing small distractions, that’s also fine.
The one situation to be careful with is using AI to make it look as though a real person was somewhere they never actually were. That’s the point where you can move into deepfake territory.
For most autónomos and small business owners, everyday AI use sits completely outside these four situations.
Do you need Internal Company Regulations?
There’s no law saying you need a written AI policy, a list of approved AI tools or proof that your team completed AI training.
The AI Act does require that people using AI on your behalf have a sufficient level of AI literacy (Article 4, applicable since February 2025). But it doesn’t prescribe a specific document, certificate or training format. Keeping a simple note of which AI tools you use and what information should never be entered into them is still good practice, mainly for data protection, not because the law requires paperwork.
Where does the confusion come from?
A lot of it comes from mixing up two different sets of rules. Some obligations apply to AI providers such as OpenAI. Others apply to people and businesses using those tools. They’re different rulebooks.
One more thing
You may also have seen headlines saying that the EU delayed one of the AI Act’s technical requirements until December 2026. That’s the requirement for providers to implement technical watermarking behind the scenes. It applies to AI companies, not to businesses simply using AI. Nothing described above changes because of that delay. Article 50 still applies from 2 August.
So, do you need to change anything?
Probably not. If you run a small business, check that your chatbot clearly identifies itself as AI. Think twice before publishing realistic AI content that could be mistaken for something real. Beyond that, you can probably keep working exactly as you already do.
*This is a short summary, not legal advice. If you’re unsure how the rules apply to your own situation, check your specific use case.
Do you want to read the rules yourself?
Want to read the rules yourself?
– The regulation itself, Article 50: eur-lex.europa.eu (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689)
– The European Commission’s plain-language FAQ on Article 50: digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu
– The European Commission’s free AI Act Compliance Checker: ai-act-service-desk.ec.europa.eu
Written by Susanne Drews A.I. Educator
Personalized sessions because every business needs other tools to optimise. Susanne explains how AI can help in operational work, marketing, social media and how to use AI itself, how it functions, how it “thinks”. Clients are small businesses like lawyers, local shop and similiar.
