Does using free AI tools like ChatGPT create duties?
Yes, some. Free or paid doesn't change your role. Using ChatGPT in your business makes you a deployer: helping your staff understand the AI they use (Article 4) has applied since 2 February 2025. The duty to tell people they are talking to an AI (Article 50(1)) sits with the company that makes the chatbot, from 2 August 2026.
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Yes, some. Free or paid doesn't change your role. Using ChatGPT in your business makes you a deployer: helping your staff understand the AI they use (Article 4) has applied since 2 February 2025. The duty to tell people they are talking to an AI (Article 50(1)) sits with the company that makes the chatbot, from 2 August 2026.
Article 4 literacy has applied to that use since 2 February 2025. From 2 August 2026, people who talk to a bot on your site must be able to tell it is AI. If you only use ChatGPT internally to draft, the customer-facing mark is about what you publish, not about your private draft window.
This is general information, not legal advice.
What the law actually says
"Providers shall ensure that AI systems intended to interact directly with natural persons are designed and developed in such a way that the natural persons concerned are informed that they are interacting with an AI system, unless this is obvious from the point of view of a natural person who is reasonably well-informed, observant and circumspect, taking into account the circumstances and the context of use."— EU AI Act, Article 50(1) (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689); applies from 2 August 2026 · eur-lex.europa.eu
In plain words
- The provider of ChatGPT is the company that puts the model on the market. Your business, using it under your authority, is typically the deployer (Article 3(4)).
- Article 4 literacy still applies to that use, and it has applied since 2 February 2025.
- If a chatbot on your site talks to customers, check that it tells them it is AI — the maker has to build that in. If you built the bot yourself and offer it under your own name, you may count as its provider, and that duty would be yours. If you only use ChatGPT internally to draft, the customer-facing mark is about what you publish, not about your private draft window.
- A free plan does not switch the Act off. The test is how the system is used, not the price.
- Scans your computer and lists every AI tool your business actually uses.
- Checks your settings files for the transparency basics and produces a plain-language readiness report.
- Runs in your browser, free, nothing uploaded.
- Every month: re-scan, and the report can be updated each month — "what changed since last check" is written for you.
- Your records build into a printable readiness pack: tool inventory, training journal, disclosure checklist.
- Keeps the dated history an inspector would ask to see.
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Readiness guidance, not legal advice. GlassBots checks your own computer — nothing leaves it.