August 2026 SEO and AI News: EU AI transparency law, Claude watermarks, Google’s anti-scraping URLs

Topics discussed:

• New EU transparency rules requiring clear labelling of AI-generated or AI-altered content across formats

• Microsoft Clarity is adding branded vs non-branded segmentation for AI query/citation reporting and share of authority

• Anthropic’s Claude embedding watermarks/metadata

• Google is expanding AI Mode with interactive visualisations, quizzes, Lens learning features, and Notebook/Gemini integrations

• Google is introducing google.com/goto redirecting tracking URLs aimed at reducing scraping abuse, with major rank-tracking tools saying it doesn’t impact tracking data

News stories:

• https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/08/02/ai-generated-label-becomes-mandatory-in-the-eu-for-companies
• https://clarity.microsoft.com/blog/branded-non-branded-queries/
• https://www.cloudflare.com/press/press-releases/2026/cloudflare-adds-aeo-visibility-dashboard-to-its-aeo-suite-showing-brands-whether-ai-assistants-are-recommending-them/
• https://support.claude.com/en/articles/16266773-how-claude-marks-ai-generated-content
• https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-goto-tracking-41957.html

Time stamps

00:00 Coming up on the show

00:26 Introduction

01:45 EU AI-labelling rules

06:31 Microsoft Clarity AI brand query filters

11:31 Claude watermarking update

15:45 Google AI visual tools

22:49 Google anti-scraping URLs

25:54 What’s coming up on season 5

28:05 Wrap up