A robot that talks to people owes an AI Act disclosure, and a robot that reads emotions owes another
AI Act Article 50 binds any robot whose system interacts directly with a person: the person must be informed they are dealing with an AI system unless that is obvious. Deployers of emotion recognition or biometric categorisation must tell the people exposed to it, and synthetic audio or video output must be machine readable as artificial.
The verdict
Verified
The document exists. The ledger fetched it at its publisher and quotes it.
Key facts
What the sources say
- Record ID
- PAG-2026-0003
- Kind
- Binding law
- Jurisdiction
- European Union
- Last verified
- Added
- Article 50(1) puts the duty on the provider to design the system so the person is informed, unless it is obvious to a reasonably well informed and observant person.
- Article 50(3) puts the duty on the deployer of an emotion recognition or biometric categorisation system to inform the people exposed, and to process personal data under the GDPR.
- Article 50(2) requires outputs of synthetic audio, image, video or text to be marked in a machine readable format and detectable as artificially generated.
- Article 113 sets the general date of application at 2 August 2026, which is when the Article 50 duties began to bite.
Dimension by dimension
3 dimensions, each one stated, silent or open
The AI inside it, Workers and bystanders, The data it records. Stated means the document you can open below says it; silent means the ledger read the document and it does not.
- The AI inside itStated
- The duty attaches to the conversational or perception layer of the robot, whatever its body, and it is about disclosure rather than performance.EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), Article 50, primary source, 12 July 2024.
- Workers and bystandersStated
- A bystander who is spoken to, or whose face or voice is read for emotion, must be told, and the deployer carries that duty.EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), Article 50, primary source, 12 July 2024.
- The data it recordsSilent
- Article 50(3) points back at the GDPR for the personal data, and settles nothing about storage or retention on its own.EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), Article 50, primary source, 12 July 2024.
What it changes
For a robot maker or a deployer
A reception robot, a care robot and a warehouse assistant that answers questions all need a disclosure line, and it is a design duty on you rather than a sticker the customer adds. If your robot infers mood from a face or a voice, your deployer has a second, separate duty to tell the people in front of it. Write both into the manual and into the commissioning checklist, because the deployer cannot invent them at the door.
Sources
What this record was verified against
- EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), Article 50Primary · 12 July 2024
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Cite this record
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, with attribution. The record ID PAG-2026-0003 is permanent and is never reused.
- In a sentence
- According to the GAGE Physical AI Governance Atlas (as of 15 September 2026), a robot that talks to people owes an ai act disclosure, and a robot that reads emotions owes another.
- APA
- GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). (2026). A robot that talks to people owes an AI Act disclosure, and a robot that reads emotions owes another. Physical AI Governance Atlas. Retrieved 15 September 2026, from https://www.gage.academy/tools/physical-ai-governance-atlas/records/PAG-2026-0003-eu-ai-act-article-50-robots-that-talk
- MLA
- "A robot that talks to people owes an AI Act disclosure, and a robot that reads emotions owes another." Physical AI Governance Atlas, GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education), 15 September 2026, https://www.gage.academy/tools/physical-ai-governance-atlas/records/PAG-2026-0003-eu-ai-act-article-50-robots-that-talk.
- Chicago
- GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). "A robot that talks to people owes an AI Act disclosure, and a robot that reads emotions owes another." Physical AI Governance Atlas. Last modified 15 September 2026. https://www.gage.academy/tools/physical-ai-governance-atlas/records/PAG-2026-0003-eu-ai-act-article-50-robots-that-talk.
- Permalink
- https://www.gage.academy/tools/physical-ai-governance-atlas/records/PAG-2026-0003-eu-ai-act-article-50-robots-that-talk
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