AI Act Image Labels

A WordPress plugin that marks AI-generated and AI-modified media the way the EU AI Act asks (Article 50, applies since 2 August 2026) – right in the media library, with the EU's official icons on the site.

• Media library: every image, video and recording gets a decision – KI-generiert, Mit KI verändert or Kein Hinweis nötig – in the details (modal and edit screen), as bulk actions and with a filter and a column in the list. Labelled tiles carry the round EU icon.
• On the site: the EU icon (AI GENERATED, AI MODIFIED or the round AI) in a corner of the image, with the notice as its accessible name and, on hover, as a second layer; the notice behind captions that are shown anyway – never in the alt text. Featured images, blocks, galleries, covers, media & text, [caption], video and audio get it by themselves; images in HTML blocks and page builders are found by their file.
• Traces of AI: on upload and on every check the plugin reads the file's own data – C2PA Content Credentials, the IPTC digital source type, Stable Diffusion/ComfyUI generation data, EXIF tools, the file names AI tools use – and suggests a label. Nothing leaves the server.
• Where it is used: the check reads every page, post, template and reusable block and lists where each file is used; Auf der Website prüfen opens those pages and shows whether the label really appears.
• Bild analysieren (KI): looks at a file (the picture, its traces, where it is used) and says whether a label is required, voluntary or not needed – per file, for a list, and in the media library's box. It uses the AI provider set up under Einstellungen › Konnektoren (WordPress 7.0+); without one, the button shows the way there.
• Configurable: icon (EU icon by kind, round icon, round icon that opens on hover, own icon, sparkle), colour (dark, light, picked per image, own colour), transparency 0–75 %, size, corner, words, where the label appears.
• Card from engenty: the words of the card at the end of the tool come from https://engenty.ai/wordpress-plugins/ai-act-image-labels/promo.json (once a day, nothing sent about the site; see readme.txt › External services).

The tool lives under Media › AI labels (German: Medien › KI-Kennzeichnung), tabs Review, Appearance, Knowledge. The source strings are English; German (de_DE, also read by de_AT and de_CH) and British English ship in languages/.

The skill

skills/eu-ai-act-labels/ is an Agent Skill: the AI Act rules for labelling media (deepfake test, standard editing, exceptions, the icons and their placement, dates, sources) as of 9 October 2026. The image analysis thinks with it; any agent that reads skills can use the same folder.

For themes

Images a theme prints itself (raw <img>, CSS backgrounds) do not pass WordPress' image functions.

if ( function_exists( 'ai_act_labels_wrap' ) ) {
    echo ai_act_labels_wrap( $img_html, $attachment_id );      // the icon on the image
    echo esc_html( ai_act_labels_append_notice( $credit, $attachment_id ) ); // „Foto: Anna – Dieses Bild wurde mit KI erzeugt.“
}

ai_act_labels_kind( $id ) returns generated, modified or false; ai_act_labels_notice( $id ) the notice. A theme helper that builds images itself can pass its markup through WordPress' own filter, the label follows: apply_filters( 'wp_get_attachment_image', $html, $id, $size, false, $attr ).

Filters: ai_act_labels_show (per place), ai_act_labels_wrap (the labelled markup), ai_act_labels_usage (places this plugin does not know). Action: ai_act_labels_changed.

Development

npm install && composer install
npm run build
WP_PATH=/tmp/aal-wp WP_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8930 sh bin/test-site.sh   # WordPress + SQLite + demo site
PHP_CLI_SERVER_WORKERS=4 wp --path=/tmp/aal-wp server --host=127.0.0.1 --port=8930
WP_PATH=/tmp/aal-wp vendor/bin/phpunit
WP_PATH=/tmp/aal-wp sh bin/smoke.sh   # with the site served
vendor/bin/phpcs && npm run lint:js
npm run i18n                          # POT, PO, MO, the scripts' JSON
sh bin/zip.sh

WP-CLI: wp ai-act-labels scan | label <id>... --as=generated | list --filter=suggested | detect <id>.

The EU icons in assets/icons/eu are the European Commission's files (June 2026), free to use without attribution. This plugin helps with labelling; it is not legal advice.

GPL-2.0-or-later.