Icarus
Four questions, then a plain answer for each place your image will be seen: whether you have to say it was made with AI, what the label says and where it goes.
What to do
European Union
Yes. Say the image was made with AI.
What it says: Image made with AI
Where it goes: Next to the image, in words anyone can read, by the time someone first sees it. Your own wording is fine as long as it says the image was made or changed by AI.
The EU AI Act says anyone using an AI system that makes a deep fake has to say the content was made or changed by AI. A deep fake is content that looks like real people, objects, places or events and would pass for real. This applies from 2 August 2026.
EU AI Act, Article 50, EU AI Act, Article 3, definition 60, European Commission: Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-generated Content. Checked on 19 September 2026.
Want to see what a file already declares? Open the image metadata viewer.
Try IcarusThe EU AI Act says anyone using an AI system that makes a deep fake has to say the content was made or changed by AI. A deep fake is content that looks like real people, objects, places or events and would pass for real. This applies from 2 August 2026.
The rule does not cover an AI system that only helps with standard editing, or that does not substantially change what you gave it. A real photo with light edits is not a deep fake.
The AI Act also tells the maker of the AI system to mark what it produces in a machine-readable way, so software can tell it was made by AI. That is the tool's job, not yours. The European Commission's Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-generated Content, published on 10 June 2026, sets out how the companies that signed it do that.
Source: EU AI Act, Article 50, EU AI Act, Article 3, definition 60, European Commission: Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-generated Content. Checked on 19 September 2026.
Meta adds an AI info label to ads made or materially edited with Meta's own AI creative features, such as background generation and image generation. When an ad shows a photo-real person made with AI, that label sits next to Sponsored at the top of the ad. Meta does not label ads made with other companies' AI tools, and does not label small changes such as resizing or colour correction.
Ads about social issues, elections or politics work differently. Meta already requires the advertiser to disclose an image, video or audio that was digitally created or altered, including with another company's AI tool.
Source: Meta: AI info labels. Checked on 19 September 2026.
Amazon asks for a photo-real person made with AI to be tagged contains-synthetic-performer in the file's details, in the XMP subject field.
Source: Amazon Seller Central: Product image guide. Checked on 14 September 2026.
This is a summary of rules those organisations have published, with a link and a date on every one. It is not legal advice, and it does not cover every country or every place you might sell. Where a rule affects money or a listing being taken down, read the source and ask someone who advises you.
Rules we could not read on an official page are left out. TikTok is one: its seller and creator pages did not load when these were checked, so nothing from TikTok is here.
To see what a file already says about itself, open the image metadata viewer. It shows whether a file declares an AI origin, carries Content Credentials, or has Amazon's tag on it.
