Hiding your use of AI is about to get much harder — thanks to Brussels

BRUSSELS — It can sometimes seem like half the world is busy secretly using AI — and the other half is busy calling them out.

The AI detectors, human and otherwise, are about to get their biggest boost ever with new EU "watermarking" requirements that came into effect this month, which could upend how internet users experience and engage with AI-generated images, videos and text.

Ever since the rise of generative AI at the end of 2022, there have been fears that its dominance could mark the end of so-called "photographic truth": what you see is by default true. While leading AI companies have said they wanted to address this risk by identifying the provenance of content generated by their models, their efforts have been largely voluntary.