SenseDefend

Synthetic-media instruments, by article and effective date

Article 50(2): marking generated output

Article 50(2) binds providers of systems that generate synthetic audio, image, video or text: output has to be marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated, with solutions that are effective, interoperable, robust and reliable as far as is technically feasible. As of 2026-09-12.

The four adjectives the marking solution has to satisfyOutput has to be marked in a machine-readable format and be detectable as artificially generated or manipulated, with solutions that are effective, interoperable, robust and reliable as far as is technically feasible. Three of the four are within a single vendor's gift. Interoperability is not, because it is a property of an ecosystem.What one vendor can and cannot supplyEffectiveA vendor can deliver this alone: the mark has to actually bethere and actually be found.RobustA vendor can deliver this alone: the mark has to surviveordinary handling.ReliableA vendor can deliver this alone: the same treatment has toproduce the same answer.InteroperableNo vendor can deliver this alone. It is a property of anecosystem, not of one product.All four are qualified by as far as is technically feasible
Fig. 1 The qualifier at the end is doing real work, and one of the four adjectives cannot be delivered by any vendor acting alone.
Article 50(2) on the four points this record keeps for every paragraph. Recorded 2026-09-12.
PointWhat the paragraph states
Who it bindsProviders, including of general-purpose AI systems
What it asks forMachine-readable marking, detectable as generated or manipulated
Quality barEffective, interoperable, robust and reliable, as far as technically feasible
Carve-outsAssistive standard editing; systems that do not substantially alter input

Inclusion rule. One page per numbered paragraph of Article 50, with the same four points on each. A point the paragraph does not address is recorded as not addressed rather than filled from a recital or a summary. Order. Fixed point order, identical on every paragraph page.

1Four adjectives, and only three are a vendor's to deliver

Effective, robust and reliable are properties a single company can engineer and test on its own. Interoperable is not: a mark is interoperable only when parties other than its author can read it, which makes it a property of an ecosystem. A vendor can build the first three alone and cannot claim the fourth alone.

That is the reason this record keeps a separate row for what each generator publishes about machine-readable marking, and why almost every one of those rows is empty. One entry describes a signal inside the file. The rest describe what a viewer sees, which is the subject of a different paragraph.

2The technical-feasibility qualifier is doing real work

The obligation is bounded by what is technically feasible, taking into account the specificities and limitations of different types of content and the generally acknowledged state of the art. A duty written that way moves as the field moves, which means a position that is defensible in one year is not automatically defensible later.

Nothing in the paragraph names a standard, a format or a registry. Anyone looking for the specific field to write is looking for something the text does not supply, and the codes of practice mentioned further down the article are the mechanism the regulation points at instead.

  • Article 50(2)
    Providers must mark synthetic audio, image, video and text in a machine-readable formatincluding general-purpose AI systemsAI Act Explorer, Article 50 / recorded 2026-09-12
  • Article 50(2)
    Technical solutions must be effective, interoperable, robust and reliable as far as technically feasiblequalifier on the marking dutyAI Act Explorer, Article 50 / recorded 2026-09-12
  • Article 50(2)
    Machine-readable marking does not apply to assistive standard editing that does not substantially alter the inputsecond exemptionAI Act Explorer, Article 50 / recorded 2026-09-12

3Sources

Wording read from AI Act Explorer, Article 50 on 2026-09-12. The whole article in one place is on the Article 50 page; who each duty binds is on duties by role. Next to it: Article 50(1), Article 50(3).