Polish ad industry works out who labels AI content under new EU rules

New European rules on artificial intelligence in advertising started on August 2. They come from the AI Act, the European Union’s new law for artificial intelligence. Polish agencies and advertisers have spent the month working out what the rules mean day to day. IAB Polska, the trade body for online advertising, set up an AI and law task force and published a guide. Wirtualne Media also asked agencies and the ministry for their views in a round-up on August 28. The answer is simpler than many marketers feared. Using an AI tool somewhere in the making of an ad does not by itself mean you have to add a label.

The label is needed for a deepfake. The AI Act describes a deepfake in Article 3 as an image, sound or video made or changed by AI that looks close enough to real people, objects, places or events to pass as genuine. Jowita Bieda of the Ministry of Digital Affairs told Wirtualne Media that simply using AI to make an ad does not decide the question. Beata Michalik of Labcon put the rule this way: label only what pretends to be real. Paweł Mucha of dentsu Poland said color grading and similar small touch-ups are not covered.

The IAB Polska guide was written by lawyers from TKP, Publicis Groupe and WPP Media. It splits the duty in two. Companies that build AI systems have to put a marking inside the file that machines can read. The people who use the tools, usually agencies or in-house teams, have to add a notice a person can see. That notice should be clear and should appear the first time someone sees the ad. Metadata, a line in the terms of service or a word in a web address does not count. Written text is mostly exempt, unless it tells the public about matters such as health or safety.

Fines up to 15 million euros fall on whoever controls the AI

The duty follows control, not job title. Whoever decides how the AI is used carries it. That may be an agency, a production company or the brand’s own team. For that reason the guide advises advertisers to write roles and labelling standards into their contracts. Fines can reach fifteen million euros or three percent of a company’s global yearly turnover. Marta Botiuk-Filip of the Czyżewscy law firm warned this week that a small gray line at the bottom of an ad does not really inform anyone. She also said many companies still have no internal rules on which AI tools staff may use.

Poland’s new AI commission is due to start work in November

Poland is still building the system that will enforce the rules. A new Commission for the Development and Security of Artificial Intelligence will draw on four existing regulators: UOKiK, UKE, KNF and KRRiT. Its chair is expected to be picked in October, and the commission should start work in November, according to Wirtualne Media. AI systems already on the market have until December 2 to meet the machine-readable marking rule. Until the regulator publishes its own guidance, the IAB document is the closest thing Polish advertisers have to a rulebook. A written internal procedure saying when an ad needs a label is a sensible minimum.