The EU's AI Transparency Rules for Schools (June 26 Update)

Quick disclaimer first. I'm not a lawyer. This is me reading the rules closely, comparing what's actually written with what people are saying online, and bringing the perspective I've picked up doing AI governance work in schools. Use it to ask better questions, not as legal advice. If something matters for your setting, take it to your DPO and legal team.I'm writing this late, gone 9pm, and I'll be honest, partly out of frustration. The labelling guidance pieces of this landed a couple of days ago, the interpretive Guidelines are in their final stretch, and watching it all click into place this close to the 2 August deadline has wound me up a bit.Here's why. The EU has had two years to figure this out. Two years. And the moment they pick to push it over the line is the summer, which for schools is about the worst window you could choose for something this big. These rules apply from 2 August. So a regime with real implications lands right when the people who have to implement it are on holiday.So this is me, on a weeknight, reading the actual documents and writing down what I find, because I'd rather get my head round it now than scramble in September.And if you're wondering why I bother reading these things line by line, it's just how I'm built. I've been asking "but why?" and "how do we know that?" since I was a kid. Apparently it was exhausting. Mum would confirm. But it's the only way I've found to get through documents like these without quietly inheriting someone else's assumptions, and there are a few of those floating about that don't survive contact with the actual text.First thing to get straight, because it tripped me up and it trips up most of the coverage too: there are two documents here, doing two different jobs. The Commission's Guidelines tell you what the rules mean, what counts as a deep fake, what "matters of public interest" covers, when the exceptions bite. The Code of Practice is the practical tool: how you actually label things, the...