AI-generated content: when to disclose and how - VibePeak

AI-generated content: when you must disclose it, and how

Since 2 August 2026, the EU AI Act requires whoever publishes AI-generated content to disclose it when that content could be mistaken for something real. If you publish on property portals or social media, it applies to you. This page explains what to do, in five minutes and without jargon.

1. Who has to disclose

The duty to disclose falls on whoever publishes the content, not on whoever generates it. VibePeak technically marks everything it delivers so that it is identifiable as AI-generated, but the notice the public actually sees depends on where and how you publish, which is why it is your decision and your responsibility.

2. Four steps to check whether you must disclose

  1. Was the content generated or modified by artificial intelligence? If you created it with VibePeak, yes. Video, image and audio all count: virtual home staging, a photo with a replaced sky, a video built from photos or a synthetic voice-over are all in scope.
  2. Are you going to publish or distribute it? Posting it on a portal, on social media, on your website, or sending it to a client all count as distribution. Internal use that never leaves your organisation does not.
  3. Does it depict real people, places, objects or events? A specific flat that is on the market is a real place. An identifiable person is a real person.
  4. Could it appear authentic to whoever sees it? If someone could take it for an unedited photo or video, the answer is yes.

If you answered yes to all four, you must disclose.

3. A worked example

You list a real flat for sale on a property portal, using photos to which you applied virtual home staging.

1. AI-generated? Yes. 2. Published? Yes. 3. Real place? Yes — that flat exists and is for sale. 4. Does it look authentic? Yes — realism is precisely what makes home staging useful.

→ You must disclose.

This is the most common case in the sector, and the answer is yes. Acting in good faith and with no intention to mislead does not change the obligation: the rule does not look at intent, it looks at whether the content could appear authentic.

When the answer is no:

  • An obviously unreal image that nobody would mistake for a photograph.
  • Ordinary retouching — exposure, cropping, straightening, white balance — without adding or removing elements.
  • Material that stays inside your company and is never published.

4. What counts as a valid disclosure

A valid disclosure meets three conditions:

  • Clear, in language anyone understands: “AI-generated image”, “Video generated with artificial intelligence”, “Virtual home staging”.
  • Visible from the start, not at the end and not hidden behind a “show more”. In a video, a visible mark as playback begins is enough; in an image, text on the image itself or in the caption.
  • Attached to the content, not buried in a general legal notice on your website.

It does not need to be loud or take up half the screen. It does need to be seen by the first person who sees the content.

5. How to do it on each channel

Property portals (Idealista, Fotocasa and similar)

Mark the affected images with text on the image itself and state it in the listing description as well (“The living room and bedroom images include virtual home staging”). If you also publish the property video, the disclosure has to be in the video, because it gets shared on its own.

Instagram, TikTok and Facebook

Use each platform’s AI-generated content label and, on top of that, a visible mark in the video or image itself. The platform label disappears as soon as someone downloads and forwards the file; the mark on the image does not.

WhatsApp and sending files directly to clients

There is no platform label, so the disclosure has to be inside the content or in the message that carries it.

Your own website

A caption or a mark on the image. For video, a visible mark at the start.

Why we insist on the visible mark

VibePeak embeds technical provenance information in the file that identifies the content as AI-generated. That information is robust, but portals and social networks re-process the files you upload and frequently strip it. The disclosure a human sees is the one that survives that re-processing.

6. What VibePeak does for you

  • We technically mark the content we deliver as AI-generated. That is our obligation and you do not have to do anything.
  • What we cannot do for you is the disclosure on the portal or the social network, because it depends on where you publish.

7. One caveat

This page is informational and does not constitute legal advice. It covers the ordinary case of a real estate agency publishing listings in the European Union. If your case falls outside that — content featuring identifiable people, advertising outside the EU, regulated sectors — consult your own legal advisers.

Last updated: 20 September 2026.