Reference · Article 50(1) · applies from 2 August 2026
The chatbot disclosure wording, ready to paste
From 2 August 2026, Article 50(1) of the EU AI Act expects AI chatbots on sites serving people in the EU to say they are AI at the first interaction. Here is wording that meets that intent, free to copy, no attribution, no strings.
The wording
You're chatting with an AI assistant. Type 'human' any time to reach a person.Copy it as is, or adapt it: what matters is that the AI is named plainly and a person is reachable. Translate it for non-English pages.
Where it goes: the five placement rules
- At the first interaction
- Article 50(1) points at the moment a person starts interacting with the AI system, and 50(5) says the information comes at the latest at first interaction. Put the wording in the first message the chat shows, or in an always-visible label on the widget, not three replies in.
- In the chat itself, visibly
- A disclosure buried in terms and conditions, a privacy policy, or a nested menu does not meet the bar Article 50 sets: clear and distinguishable. The notice belongs where the conversation happens.
- In the language of the page
- A German storefront with an English-only AI notice is telling most of its visitors nothing. Match the page language, or show both.
- With a working way to reach a human
- The suggested wording offers a person on request. Only promise that if the handover actually works: pair the line with your chat tool’s escalation or handover setting.
- Without a human disguise
- A bot with a human first name and a headshot, and no AI label, undoes the disclosure. Keep the name and avatar consistent with what the wording says.
Where to paste it in your chat tool
Every widget puts the first message somewhere different, and several have defaults that quietly remove the AI label. Each guide shows the exact settings path for that product and the defaults to check.
Verify it landed
Vendor settings move and themes override widgets, so check what your chat actually shows at the first interaction. The scan is free and takes about a minute.
Prove the fix
Pasting the wording closes the gap; proving when it was closed is what a client, a platform review, or a lawyer asks for later. The $99 Article 50 Record runs the full scan fresh and seals the result: the captured screenshot with its hash, every check with its detail, and a PDF you can hand over. A record dated before 2 August 2026 shows where you stood on day one.
If we cannot produce a usable record, full refund. Otherwise, 14 days, no questions. Or compare plans.
Questions
- What wording does Article 50(1) expect, exactly?
- The Act prescribes no exact sentence. It expects people to be told they are interacting with an AI system, clearly, at the latest at the first interaction (Article 50(1) and 50(5)). A short line such as the one on this page meets that intent: it names the AI plainly and offers a human. This is technical guidance, not legal advice.
- Is 2 August 2026 still the date?
- Yes for chatbot disclosure. Article 50(1) applies from 2 August 2026 and was not delayed. The Digital Omnibus grace period to 2 December 2026 covers the separate machine-readable content-marking duty (Article 50(2)), and only for systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026.
- What are the penalties for missing it?
- Under Article 99, breaches of the transparency obligations can carry penalties up to EUR 15M or 3% of worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher. The EUR 35M / 7% tier that circulates in this niche applies to prohibited practices under Article 5, not to Article 50 transparency.
- Does this apply if a human answers my chat?
- Article 50(1) is about AI systems interacting with people. If real humans answer every chat, the chatbot-disclosure duty is not engaged. It becomes relevant the moment an AI agent answers the first message, which on most chat platforms is a separately billed add-on you switch on.
For the full picture (all five parts of Article 50, the dates, who is in scope), see the Article 50 guide, and for what regulators have actually done so far, the enforcement tracker.