What is synthetic content?
Synthetic content is audio, image, video or text that has been generated or significantly manipulated by an AI system rather than captured or authored conventionally. It is the object of the EU AI Act’s marking regime: under Article 50, providers of generative AI must ensure outputs are marked as artificially generated in a machine-readable format from 2 August 2026. Two subsets attract visible labelling: deepfakes, and AI-generated text published to inform the public on matters of public interest (unless human editorial review with responsibility applies).
Scope notes
- “Significantly manipulated” covers AI-edited real footage, not only fully generated media;
- Assistive uses (grammar fixes, standard editing) generally fall outside the marking duty;
- Marking is a provider duty at generation; labelling is largely a deployer duty at publication — contracts should allocate both.
Why it matters
Any product with a generation feature — marketing copy tools, avatar apps, game asset pipelines — needs a marking design before August 2026. Start with the AI Act Readiness Checklist.