SenseDefend

Synthetic-media instruments, by article and effective date

What an AI label is, and where the dates come from

An AI label is a disclosure attached to generated media. Three published instruments give dates, and they differ in whether the duty falls on the tool, the publisher or the platform, and in whether the mark must be visible or machine-readable. As of 2026-09-12.

Three published instruments, and how differently each one places the dutyAn AI label is a disclosure attached to generated media, and three published instruments give dates for one. They differ in whether the duty falls on the tool that made the content, the publisher that released it, or the platform that distributed it, and in whether the mark has to be visible or machine-readable.The toolMade the contentMarks at generationMachine-readable, usuallyThe publisherReleased itDiscloses at publicationVisible, usuallyThe platformDistributed itLabels on uploadVisible, and outside yourcontrolOne piece of generated mediaWhich instrument binds which party is the thing to check first
Fig. 1 One word covers three duties that land on three different parties. Dates are the part most often misquoted, and the party is the part most often assumed.
AIGC label, as published. Recorded 2026-09-12.
InstrumentWhat is publishedDate
California AI Transparency Act, AB 853Operative for providers above a threshold2 August 2026
EU AI Act Article 50Applies, with a marking grace period2 August 2026
New York synthetic performers in advertisingSigned, in force after a delay11 December 2025

Inclusion rule. Instruments published in full by the body that made them, with a date stated in the text. Bills that have not been signed are not listed. Order. Alphabetical by instrument.

1Label is one word for several duties

One instrument asks for something a machine can read, another for something a viewer can see, and a third addresses advertising specifically. A product satisfying one has not automatically satisfied the others, and none of them are what a vendor means when it says its output is labelled.

This register records what generators publish about marking. What any instrument requires of a given production is a separate question and is not answered here.

2Dates are the part most often misquoted

Two of these dates fall on the same day, which makes them easy to conflate, and one of them has a grace period attached that is regularly dropped when the date is repeated.

Every date here is taken from the instrument's own published text, with the date it was read, so a reader can check rather than inherit the error.

3What a vendor's label statement does and does not tell you

A vendor saying output is labelled is describing its own default behaviour, usually on its own interface, and often with a setting that changes it. That is a fact about the product rather than about any obligation, which is why the two are recorded in different columns here.

4Visible and machine-readable are different obligations

A visible mark a viewer can see and a signal software can detect satisfy different requirements, and a product providing one has not provided the other. Vendors frequently describe both in the same sentence, which is where most of the confusion starts.

The generator table on this site keeps them in separate columns for exactly that reason.

5The date is not the whole answer

Two of the dates here carry qualifications in the text they come from: a grace period in one, a threshold in another. Repeating the date without the qualification is the most common way these instruments get misquoted, including by people summarising them accurately elsewhere.

6Published material behind this entry

A term in this record: what it means, and what the published material says about it, each figure read on 2026-09-12. Related: Machine-readable, Provenance.