AI Act : what you need to know, and how Nodalview handles it for you

Who does it apply to?

Article 50 requires certain AI-generated or AI-modified content to carry a label indicating that it is not of human or authentic origin. The goal: making sure the public is never misled about the nature of content they're viewing.

Two roles to distinguish:

• The provider is the one who develops the AI tool (e.g., the publisher of a virtual home-staging software).
• The deployer is you: the agency that uses the tool day to day.

As a deployer, your main responsibility is to check that the tools you use display the required label when it's needed.

What are the real risks?

Non-compliance can result in fines of up to €15 million or 3% of annual turnover, with proportionate enforcement for smaller businesses. But the more immediate risk for an agency is commercial: a visual perceived as misleading damages a buyer's trust far faster than a compliance check ever will.

A listing description written with the help of AI doesn't need an automatic label. Article 50 targets content published to inform the public on matters of general interest, not commercial listings. And in an agency, AI never publishes on its own: the negotiator always reviews and approves the listing before it goes live. That human review is what protects the agency, not a label.

To understand this properly, it's worth distinguishing between "generative AI" and "traditional AI."

So-called "traditional" AI doesn't invent or create anything. It's used to analyze the image, for example, to detect a window, a TV, or the type of room, so the retouching process can be automatically adapted. Since it doesn't generate a single new pixel, it also falls outside the scope of the mandatory label.

A technique like HDR blending (several real shots combined for better exposure) doesn't involve any generative AI either: it only processes pixels actually captured by the camera. That's the case for HDR photos captured with Nodalview, which therefore don't need to display an AI label.

Generative AI (like ChatGPT), on the other hand, recreates the image from a prompt, even for a simple brightness correction. In that case, the pixels are invented, and the label becomes mandatory.

So for photos and videos, the rule is simple: as soon as generative AI is involved in enhancing or modifying an image, a label is required. No generative AI, no label.

Watch out for "AI-boosted" tools promising professional-looking photos: if the enhancement relies on generative AI rather than a genuine image-processing technique (like HDR), every photo produced by that tool will need to carry the AI label even the ones that look like simple corrections.

The right question to ask about any real estate photo tool: are my professional-quality images obtained by processing my real photos, or by generative AI recreating the image?

Your HDR and SmartFusion photos: zero label, zero effort

Our SmartFusion technology doesn't rely on generative artificial intelligence: it's an image-processing technique (HDR blending) that assembles and optimizes your real shots for a professional result. It doesn't generate any pixels and doesn't alter the property's content. Since no AI is involved in the process, your SmartFusion photos simply fall outside the scope of the AI Act, with no label required.

Virtual staging and AI retouching: the label is already built in

As you've now understood, when it comes to generating pixels, the label is mandatory. For anything involving creation (virtual staging, certain AI retouching), the banner was already in place, and we're extending it to cover all relevant content. You don't need to activate anything manually: the label appears automatically whenever it's needed.

AI effects, for their part, rely on generative AI: pixels are indeed invented, mainly around furniture. We train our models to preserve the property's existing structural elements (walls, windows, volumes) as faithfully as possible, but the result remains technically "invented" — and that's precisely what triggers the labeling requirement.

And because this label is also part of your listings' visual identity, the banner is customizable: you can adapt it to your brand guidelines rather than displaying a generic strip.

AI videos: the same logic applies

The same principle now applies to videos generated or transformed by AI, which will receive the same treatment as photos.

One more option: the official EU icon

In addition to our own banner, you'll be able to choose to display the official disclosure icon defined by the European Commission. It's up to you to pick whichever fits your brand image best.

A real differentiator for your listings

This is why this topic goes beyond mere compliance: some tools on the market rely on generative AI to produce all of their visuals, including their "standard" photos. Their users will therefore need to add an AI label to virtually all their photos.

With Nodalview, your HDR photos remain natively exempt from labeling, since no generative artificial intelligence is involved in producing them. Your listings keep a look that buyers perceive as authentic. That's a real advantage, at a time when trust in real estate visuals is becoming a sensitive issue.