Invisible marking uses standard metadata: the IPTC Digital Source Type field states whether an image is trained algorithmic media or a composite, and C2PA content credentials record how it was made. Visible labels are text or badges on the image itself.
In the EU, the AI Act requires providers of generative AI systems to mark synthetic images in a machine-readable way. The AI image label checker reads these markers in your browser.
Two kinds of label
An AI label can be visible or invisible. The visible kind is a line of text, a badge or a note in the product description that tells the shopper directly. The invisible kind is written into the file as metadata, where software, search engines and marketplaces can read it and people do not see it.
The two serve different readers and are often combined. A marketplace may forbid text on the picture itself and still ask for the marking in the file or for a declaration in a field of the listing.
Who asks for the label
The demand comes from three sides. Lawmakers require the makers of AI systems to mark what those systems generate. Marketplaces and ad platforms set their own disclosure rules for sellers. And search engines read the marking in the file and may show it beside the picture.
The rules are recent and still changing, and they differ between marketplaces. The rule rows further down quote what a few of them publish.
How a label gets lost
An invisible label is only as durable as the file. Saving a picture through a messenger, a screenshot, a social platform or an editor that discards metadata removes it without any warning, and the picture then looks unmarked although it was marked when it was made.
The safe habit is to keep the original file as delivered, to use export settings that preserve metadata, and to check a file again after the last editing step and before upload.
AI image labelling and related terms
- IPTC metadata
- IPTC metadata is the set of standard fields inside an image file. One of them, the digital source type, is the common place for the invisible AI label.
- Content Credentials (C2PA)
- Content Credentials are a signed record of how a picture was made and edited. They can state that AI was involved and are harder to alter than a plain metadata field.
- Watermark
- A watermark is a visible mark placed over a picture. A visible AI label on the image is a kind of watermark, which is why some marketplaces want the invisible form.
Synthetic model- A synthetic model is a person in a picture who was generated and does not exist. Pictures with synthetic people are the case that disclosure rules address most often.
A checklist for AI-made product images
- The rule of each sales channel on AI-made images was read for the product category in question.
- The file still carries its invisible marking after the last export, and a checker confirms it.
- Where a declaration field or a note in the description is asked for, it was filled in.
- No visible label sits on the picture where the marketplace forbids text on images.
- The picture shows the real product truthfully: colour, shape, details and what is included.
- The original files are kept, so that the marking can be shown if someone asks.