Practical guide · last reviewed August 2026
The short version
01
Install AIM Transparency (free, from WordPress.org).
02
Open an image in the Media Library and mark it AI-generated (or AI-edited).
03
Done. The visible badge, embedded IPTC/XMP metadata and schema.org JSON-LD are applied automatically, everywhere that image appears.
Why label AI images at all?
Since 2 August 2026, the EU AI Act's Article 50 has asked anyone publishing AI-generated or AI-manipulated images to disclose them. As the site owner displaying the image you're a deployer, and your duty is a clear, human-visible disclosure, backed ideally by a machine-readable mark in the file. For the full legal picture, see our EU AI Act & WordPress guide. This page is the practical how-to.
Step by step
Install the plugin.
In your WordPress admin go to Plugins → Add New, search for AIM Transparency, install and activate it, or grab it from wordpress.org/plugins/aim-transparency. It's free and needs no account.
Flag an image as AI.
Open Media → Library. Each image now has an AI-source setting (and there's an "AI" column). Set the image to AI-generated, AI-edited (composite), or algorithmic. You can do one image, or select several and use the bulk action.
The badge appears on the front end.
Visit any page where that image shows (a gallery, a featured image, a portfolio grid, content images, block/FSE templates) and you'll see the "AI Generated" badge. Nothing else to wire up.
04
Provenance is embedded automatically.
Behind the scenes the plugin writes the IPTC/XMP DigitalSourceType into the image file and adds schema.org JSON-LD to the page, so detection tools and search engines can recognise the image as AI. (More on that in What IPTC DigitalSourceType actually is.)
05
Tune the badge (optional).
Under the AIM Transparency menu, open Badge settings to change the style, shape, position and label, or switch between the official EU icons, the built-in AIM badge, or your own. A live preview shows exactly how it renders.
06
Keep your compliance record.
Export a CSV of every disclosed image (file, type, label, embedded status, IPTC URI) plus your Article 4 AI-literacy checklist, from the dashboard: evidence for your own EU AI Act records.
What each layer does
- Visible badge: the human disclosure (EU AI Act Article 50(4)). A person can plainly see the image is AI.
- Embedded IPTC/XMP metadata: the machine-readable mark travels inside the file, so it survives download and re-use.
- schema.org JSON-LD: a supplementary machine-readable layer that declares the image's AI provenance on the page, alongside the embedded IPTC tag search engines read to label AI images.
Doing all three is the robust approach: a visible badge still works even when a platform strips metadata on re-upload, and the embedded mark still identifies the file even when the badge isn't shown.
Does this work with my theme?
Yes, the badge renders across standard galleries, featured images, content images, portfolio/masonry layouts and block/FSE themes without theme edits. For custom themes that hand-write their own image markup, an optional Universal coverage mode extends the badge there too. If you also run a chatbot, the plugin adds an AI-assistant disclosure notice (and an [aicl_ai_notice] shortcode) for Article 50(1).
Do I need Pro?
No, everything above is free forever: manual flagging, the badge and Badge Studio, IPTC/XMP embedding, JSON-LD, the chatbot notice and the CSV report. Pro is for scale: automatic flagging on upload (reading the provenance tags AI tools embed: Content Credentials from DALL·E and Firefly, and the IPTC DigitalSourceType tag from Midjourney), a library scanner that re-embeds stripped marks and adopts provenance already declared inside your existing images, WooCommerce single-product gallery badges, and formatted reports (a print-ready report you can save as PDF, plus JSON and Markdown).
FAQ
How long does this take?
Will it change how my images look?
What if I flag an image by mistake?
Related guides
The law behind the badge, the metadata underneath it, and the shop case, each in plain English.
The lawThe EU AI Act and WordPress (Article 50)
Who Article 50 covers, the 2 August 2026 deadline, the penalties, and exactly what a WordPress site owner must do, in plain English.
Read guide
The metadataWhat IPTC DigitalSourceType actually is
The machine-readable tag behind “AI-generated”: what the IPTC DigitalSourceType vocabulary means, the values AIM Transparency writes for AI and human provenance alike, and why it future-proofs your images.
The shopDisclose AI product images in WooCommerce.
Selling with AI product photos? Put the “AI Generated” badge across your shop grid, your categories and the single-product gallery, free, plus embedded provenance, on any theme. Compliance and buyer trust, in one move.
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Written textHow to disclose AI-written text in WordPress
The half of Article 50(4) nobody quotes. Whether the text duty reaches your site at all, how to record it per post, and why human review on its own is not the exemption.
Read guide
ChatbotsHow to disclose an AI chatbot on WordPress
Article 50(1) is the other half of the law: if visitors interact with an AI, you have to tell them. Where the notice belongs, and how to find widgets already running.
Read guide
LanguagesYour AI disclosure has to be in a language visitors read
Article 50 asks you to inform the person. An English badge on a Polish shop does not. How disclosure works across 22 EU languages, and where the wording comes from.
Read guide
For developersShow an AI disclosure automatically with WordPress hooks
One filter, one condition, one call to do_shortcode. Copy-paste recipes for categories, custom fields, WooCommerce and block themes.
Read guide
The releaseWhat WordPress 7.1 changes for AI image provenance
7.1 can rebuild your images in the browser before they ever reach your server. What that does to provenance written inside the file, what we measured against the release candidate, and the one line that turns it off.
Read guide