Start with who it binds, because most companies asking this question are not bound. The machine-readable marking duty in Article 50(2) falls on providers of generative AI systems: companies offering, under their own brand, a system that generates audio, image, video, or text. Companies merely using AI tools have no marking duty; their obligations, if any, are the visible labelling rules discussed elsewhere on this site.
For providers, the statute sets an outcome, not a technology: outputs must be marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated, with solutions "effective, interoperable, robust and reliable as far as technically feasible." The draft guidelines read this as two cumulative elements: marking the output and providing a detection means for people exposed to it.
No single technique is deemed sufficient on its own. The guidance points to layering: provenance metadata (C2PA/Content Credentials is the leading convention for image, video, and audio; accepted, not legally required), invisible watermarking where your model stack offers it, plus logging or fingerprinting where feasible. For text, be honest with yourself and your auditors: current text watermarking is weak, and the guidance's "as far as technically feasible" language is where that reality lives. Feasibility is judged objectively, though. Being a small provider is expressly not an excuse.
If you build on an upstream model, you may lean on the marking the model provider embeds, but without prejudice to your own responsibility to demonstrate compliance. In practice that means verifying the marks survive your pipeline (export, compression, format conversion) and documenting that verification.
Timing: systems already on the market before August 2, 2026 get until December 2, 2026 for this marking duty specifically, under the Digital Omnibus. That grace period is agreed but binding only on Official Journal publication, still pending at this writing. Everything else in Article 50 stays at August 2, 2026. Document your technique choices, tests, and known limitations: the four criteria are assessed holistically, and the paper trail is most of the defence.
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