AIM Transparency: AI Disclosure for EU AI Act Compliance on WordPress

Research Context and Background

AIM Transparency is a free WordPress plugin created to help website owners follow new laws about artificial intelligence. Specifically, it helps sites comply with Article 50 of the EU AI Act. This law requires clear labels when a website shows images or text made by AI. The tool became important because starting in August 2026, anyone showing AI content on their site is legally considered a "deployer" and must provide visible warnings to visitors. The plugin works entirely on the user's own server, which means no data leaves the site unless the owner chooses to share it.

Benefits

The main advantage of AIM Transparency is that it makes legal compliance easy for WordPress users. It automatically adds a visible badge that says "AI-generated" to images in galleries, portfolios, and content areas. This badge works with almost any website theme. Users can also change the look of the badge, including its shape and color, using a feature called Badge Studio. The tool also supports multiple languages, including German, French, and Spanish, so it works for visitors from different countries.

Beyond what people see, the plugin adds hidden data to image files. This machine-readable data helps search engines and detection tools understand that an image was created by a computer. It also creates a special code block that search engines can read to verify the image source. For chatbots or AI writing tools on a site, the plugin provides shortcodes that add necessary notices to inform users they are talking to a machine. The tool also includes a dashboard that scans the website to find any AI tools that have not been labeled yet, helping owners stay ahead of the law.

Use Cases

This tool is designed for anyone who runs a WordPress website and uses AI to create or edit content. It is useful for photographers who use AI to enhance their photos, bloggers who write with AI assistance, and businesses that use AI chatbots to talk to customers. If a site owner uploads an image made by Midjourney or DALL-E, they can flag it in the media library, and the plugin will handle the rest. It is also helpful for sites that run AI customer service bots, as it ensures the required legal warning appears when users interact with the bot. Even if a site does not use AI, the tool can help document that images are human-created by adding specific provenance data.

Pricing

AIM Transparency is currently free to use. The core plugin includes all the essential features for compliance, such as badge rendering, media flagging, and machine-readable metadata. There is a separate Pro add-on available for users who need extra features like automatic flagging when files are uploaded or the ability to export detailed PDF reports. The free version is sufficient for most users who need to meet the basic disclosure requirements of the EU AI Act.

Vibes

The plugin has received positive feedback from the WordPress community for its focus on privacy and ease of use. Users appreciate that the detection and scanning features happen locally on their server, ensuring their data stays safe. The ability to export an audit trail of all disclosed images has been highlighted as a valuable feature for keeping records. Some users have noted that the multilingual support is a significant improvement, making the tool more accessible globally. The open-source nature of the project has also built trust, as the code is transparent and available for review.

Additional Information

AIM Transparency was built by a developer known as itisnothuman. The project is open source, meaning the code is available for anyone to inspect or modify. The plugin requires WordPress version 6.0 or higher and PHP version 7.4 or higher to function. While the core tool is free, there is an optional directory where site owners can choose to list their site publicly. This directory helps others find compliant websites but is turned off by default to protect privacy. The developers have also created a public checker tool that allows anyone to scan a website URL to see if it is compliant without needing to install the plugin.