The Transparency Tier Nobody Talks About

Everyone talks about the bans and the high-risk rules. Almost nobody talks about the middle tier, and it's my favorite.

The EU AI Act says some AI systems just have to be honest about what they are. Chatbots must tell you they're chatbots. AI-generated images, audio, and video must be labeled as AI-generated. No hiding. No pretending.

I call this the no-hide-and-seek rule, and I wish every AI regulation had one. Most AI harm doesn't come from evil robots. It comes from people not knowing they're dealing with a machine, then trusting it the way they'd trust a person.

Transparency is the cheapest safety measure there is. It costs almost nothing and prevents a whole category of confusion. Tell people what they're looking at. That's the whole tier, and it's enough.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.