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Spain To Impose Massive Fines For Not Labeling AI-Generated Content

(Tuesday March 11, 2025 @06:40PM (BeauHD) from the cease-and-desist dept.)


Spain's government has approved legislation imposing substantial fines of up to 35 million euros or 7% of global turnover on companies that [1]fail to clearly label AI-generated content . Reuters reports:

> The bill adopts guidelines from the European Union's landmark AI Act imposing strict transparency obligations on AI systems deemed to be high-risk, Digital Transformation Minister Oscar Lopez told reporters. "AI is a very powerful tool that can be used to improve our lives ... or to spread misinformation and attack democracy," he said. Spain is among the first EU countries to implement the bloc's rules, considered more comprehensive than the United States' system that largely relies on voluntary compliance and a patchwork of state regulations. Lopez added that everyone was susceptible to "deepfake" attacks - a term for videos, photographs or audios that have been edited or generated through AI algorithms but are presented as real. [...]

>

> The bill also bans other practices, such as the use of subliminal techniques - sounds and images that are imperceptible - to manipulate vulnerable groups. Lopez cited chatbots inciting people with addictions to gamble or toys encouraging children to perform dangerous challenges as examples. It would also prevent organizations from classifying people through their biometric data using AI, rating them based on their behavior or personal traits to grant them access to benefits or assess their risk of committing a crime. However, authorities would still be allowed to use real-time biometric surveillance in public spaces for national security reasons.



[1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/spain-impose-massive-fines-not-labelling-ai-generated-content-2025-03-11/



How long? (Score:3)

by Retired Chemist ( 5039029 )

How long before everything on the internet is marked "may contain AI content"? It is like the peanut warnings on candy. There is almost no chance of the product having any peanut contamination, but the lawyers want to be safe, if anyone ever sues. It makes no difference if the suit has any justification or not. The internet is full of second and third and tenth hand stuff and who will be able to tell if contains AI created material or not and what does AI created even mean exactly.\?

Re: (Score:3)

by Local ID10T ( 790134 )

Prop 65 Warning: Everything causes Cancer -but only in California!

(If you lived in California, you would get the joke...)

This reply is gluten-free (Score:3)

by LinuxRulz ( 678500 )

Or we go the other way and assume everything is from gen-AI unless marked otherwise. As long as there is a way to enforce this it doesn't matter which way it goes.

Re: (Score:2)

by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 )

[1]Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts [amazon.com]

Ingredients: Peanuts, salt. Contains: Peanuts: WARNING: May contain peanuts.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Planters%20Dry%20Roasted%20Peanuts

Re: (Score:2)

by mjwx ( 966435 )

> [1]Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts [amazon.com] Ingredients: Peanuts, salt. Contains: Peanuts: WARNING: May contain peanuts.

The irony here is that this is due to your overly litigious society, not government regulation.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Planters%20Dry%20Roasted%20Peanuts

Second Hand AI (Score:2)

by alvinrod ( 889928 )

What does it really matter when regular people repost AI content without any of the markings? People still regularly post "news" from the Onion or similar sites without realizing that it's satire. We're all going to be breathing second hand AI content because it's so easy to spew out and some sizeable percentage of human generated content is functionally identical to it anyways.

Re: (Score:2)

by test321 ( 8891681 )

> People still regularly post "news" from the Onion or similar sites without realizing that it's satire.

Precisely because there is no such law about satire, so The Onion does not visibly acknowledge its true nature (there is one item in the FAQ that uses the word "satire" but it's not on frontpage, it's not in About Us, you pretty much need to know you're looking for it to find it). If The Onion would pre-prend its page titles were pre-pended "[Satire]" that would solve it. They can even use transparent letters size 0.1pt so to not compromise their appearance; that would at least guarantee that it is quoted a

Business plan: (Score:2)

by greytree ( 7124971 )

Spain is going to need a way of checking all this content to see if it was made by an AI.

And I will provide a service to do just that.

It will use ...

people. Who do you think I am?!

What about fake influencers? (Score:2)

by thesjaakspoiler ( 4782965 )

Can we fine those as well in Spain with their meaningless 'content'?

A CONS is an object which cares.
-- Bernie Greenberg.