Article 50: creator duties vs provider duties, side by side

Under Article 50(4), a deployer that publishes a deepfake must disclose that it is artificially generated or manipulated, with lighter disclosure for evidently artistic or creative works. AI-generated text on matters of public interest needs disclosure unless a human reviewed it editorially. Article 50(2) is the separate provider duty to mark outputs in machine-readable form. If you publish video, you will usually sit in the first column.

The split

This is a reading aid built from the article text on the linked page. For an actual decision on your content, read the article in full and the Commission's guidance.

Where a generation API sits

A service like the Sume video API produces video from a prompt. You, the caller, decide what to publish and where. That puts the publication-side decisions on you: whether a clip is a deepfake, whether the creative-work wording applies, and how the disclosure appears.

What counts as a deepfake depends on the content. A realistic generated person who looks like a real one is a different case from a stylised mascot. Treat that call as a documented decision, not a default.

A deployer's working file

Keep one row per published clip. It takes five minutes per clip and gives you something to show if asked.

• Show the disclosure at first exposure, not buried at the end.
• Write it in plain words: "AI-generated" or "synthetic".
• For text, record who reviewed it and when.
• Revisit the file whenever the code of practice or guidance changes.

clip,job_id,realistic_person,creative_work,disclosure_text,placed_at,date
launch-9x16.mp4,<job id>,yes,no,AI-generated video,first frame caption,2026-10-03

What this post leaves out

It does not cover penalties, member-state enforcement or transitional rules. Those are in the regulation and the Commission's pages, and in other posts on this blog.

Making the call on creative work

The creative-works wording is the part teams most want to use and most often misread. It limits how the disclosure is shown; it does not remove it. A film-like piece can carry a short, unobtrusive notice rather than a banner over the picture.

A practical approach is to write two disclosure forms for each campaign: a plain one for ads and a lighter one for creative pieces. Choose per clip, and record the choice.

Revisit the choice if a clip moves to a new context. A scene that is clearly art on a gallery page may read as real news footage when cropped and shared elsewhere.