The EU’s AI law reaches its general application date: what changes for media

The European Artificial Intelligence Regulation set 2 August 2026 as the general application date for most of its provisions, including transparency obligations: those responsible for systems that generate or manipulate images, audio or video with a realistic appearance (“deepfakes”) must disclose that the content is artificial.

For media, the regulation provides specific treatment for AI-generated texts published to inform the public on matters of public interest: they must be identified as such, unless they have undergone human review with editorial responsibility for publication.

In November 2025, the European Commission proposed, as part of its digital simplification package, delaying some obligations for high-risk systems, which drew criticism from civil-society organizations. Newsrooms should review with their legal teams which obligations already apply to them.

Sources: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, EUR-Lex; European Commission.