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Week in review: September 30 - October 6, 2026

7 min read

AI-generated image: Week in review: September 30 - October 6, 2026 AI

Artificial intelligence rules are starting to work in practice: OpenAI will watermark ChatGPT texts by default in the European Union. UOKiK has brought charges against Google in a dispute over money for publishers, and in the US the media giant Skydance is being formed.

Three stories we picked for this week

This week, the most important developments happened in offices and courts. We picked three stories that directly affect companies creating content, buying advertising, or earning money from search traffic.

The first is OpenAI’s decision to watermark texts from ChatGPT by default in the European Union. This is a tangible effect of the AI Act for teams that write with the help of this tool. The second is UOKiK’s charges against Google. The dispute over compensation for publishers may now end with either a fine or a rate imposed by the regulator. The third is the closing of the Paramount Skydance merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. One of the largest media groups in the world has been created, and the change also affects Poland, because TVN belonged to Warner Bros. Discovery. We have arranged the remaining information by area.

Technology: ChatGPT texts with a watermark in the European Union

On October 5, OpenAI announced that it would begin watermarking texts generated by ChatGPT and Codex by default in the EU. The watermark is called textGrain. The model chooses words according to a pattern that a human will not notice, but that a special detector with a key can read. The rollout is expected to cover users in the Union in the coming weeks. Outside the EU, the feature will be available but turned off by default. In the API (interface for developers), it will remain an option to be enabled manually.

OpenAI is doing this because it is required by Article 50(2) of the AI Act, the EU regulation on artificial intelligence. Content generated by AI must be labeled in a machine-readable format. Systems placed on the market before August 2, 2026 have until December 2, 2026 to comply. For OpenAI, this is a change of course. In 2024, the company paused a similar rollout. At the time, it pointed, among other things, to the risk of false accusations against people for whom English is not a native language.

The claimed effectiveness should be approached cautiously. In the best case, OpenAI’s tests show 92 percent detectability. Changing 10 percent of the text lowers that result by nearly 30 percent, and changing 20 percent of the text by nearly 75 percent. Short and translated texts are detected less effectively. We did not find an independent measurement. At first, access to the detector will be given to a narrow group of researchers and organizations. Anthropic introduced text watermarking for its models in August and enabled it worldwide, not only in the EU.

Companies in the European Union that publish texts written with the help of ChatGPT should assume that those texts will carry OpenAI’s watermark. The reader will not see it, but organizations with access to the detector may recognize that the text was generated by AI. Teams that have rules for using AI can now update them.

Market: UOKiK brings charges against Google in dispute with publishers

On October 5, UOKiK (the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection) brought charges of abuse of a dominant position against four companies: Alphabet Inc., Google LLC, Google Ireland Limited, and Google Poland. The office skipped the explanatory proceedings and immediately launched formal proceedings. The case concerns negotiations over compensation for articles used in search, Google News, and Google Discover.

According to UOKiK, Google did not provide publishers with the information required by the amended Copyright Act. This concerns how it uses articles, how much it earns from them, and how it calculated the proposed rate. On the publishers’ side, three organizations negotiated: Repropol, the Association of Digital Publishers Employers, and the Association of Independent Publishers. Each of the four companies faces a fine of up to 10 percent of turnover. If Google changes its conduct, the office may issue a commitment decision instead of a fine. According to the head of the office, the proceedings will take at least several months, because UOKiK must analyze data from two years of negotiations.

Google responds that it has agreements with more than 5,500 European news services. In Poland, that means more than 70 services covered by agreements with more than 20 publishers, including PAP. UOKiK president Tomasz Chróstny believes that this position does not dispel the office’s doubts. In an interview for Wirtualnemedia.pl, he reminds readers of the second path:

That “nuclear option” is still on the table - the president of UKE can still determine and impose the amount of the compensation rate for content created by publishers and used by big tech companies, including Google.
Tomasz Chróstny, president of UOKiK

UKE is the Office of Electronic Communications. The proceedings do not cover Meta, X, or TikTok, although according to Chróstny the office is looking into Meta. Our conclusion: for publishers, the proceedings do not mean quick money. Chróstny emphasizes that imposing rates by the president of UKE is a last resort, and that the best solution remains an agreement between publishers and Google.

Market: Skydance after the merger with Warner Bros. Discovery

On October 6, Paramount Skydance finalized its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. The transaction is worth $111 billion including assumed debt. The day before, US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan rejected without comment a motion by five consumers who wanted to block the merger. The combined company is called Skydance. It is led by David Ellison, and the co-president is Ynon Kreiz.

The group combines two major film studios, the Paramount+ and HBO Max services, the CBS and CNN networks, and sports from CBS Sports and TNT Sports. It is expected to generate nearly $70 billion in annual revenue with around $80 billion in net debt. Paramount+, HBO Max, and Discovery+ will eventually be combined into a single service, but the company has not provided a date or a name. Content across the entire company will be overseen by HBO chief Casey Bloys. Management has announced “difficult decisions regarding employees.” eMarketer analyst Ross Benes believes that announcements of the company’s technological overhaul mean layoffs.

The path to closing the deal took months. The US Department of Justice approved the merger in June. In September, the FCC (the US communications regulator) allowed it to be financed by the sale of stakes to funds from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. The funds received non-voting shares. On September 30, a court approved a settlement with California and 11 other states. Skydance must, among other things, release at least 30 films in theaters each year, under penalty of $30 million for each missing title. It must also appoint a council for the editorial independence of CBS News and CNN. In Poland, the change affects TVN, which now has a new owner.

Marketing and sales: Google guidelines, ads in ChatGPT, and reach in Poland

Google updated its helpful content guidelines. It defines the main content of a page more clearly, such as an article, calculator, or tool, and emphasizes the value of manual work on content compared with automated production. For SEO teams (search engine optimization), this is another signal that mass-generated pages are in a losing position. Search Engine Journal

OpenAI is testing visual ads displayed during image generation in ChatGPT. According to the company, 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT every week. Search Engine Journal

According to Mediapanel’s September data, Temu has 4.2 million fewer visitors in Poland than before customs rules were tightened. The Polsat-Interia Group overtook WhatsApp in terms of reach. Wirtualnemedia.pl

A study by the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions and Hochschule Vorarlberg on 1,503 people shows that ChatGPT users searched fewer sources when choosing a product than Google users (12 percent versus 73 percent). They also chose the optimal option more often. This is another argument for brands to monitor how language models describe them. NowyMarketing

Good work: salary ranges, care allowance, and the return to offices

WPP in Poland includes salary ranges in job offers from WPP Media, VML, Ogilvy, and Burson. Rates start at PLN 4.8 thousand for a junior and exceed PLN 17 thousand for a senior. Wirtualnemedia.pl

A proposal for an additional 60 days of care allowance to care for a seriously ill child has been added to the list of legislative works of the Council of Ministers. Employers should take it into account in planning replacements when the regulations come into force. PulsHR

According to a CBRE report, in Q2 2026, 187.5 thousand sq m of office space was leased in regional markets in Poland, half more than in Q1. Employees usually come to the office two or three days a week. PulsHR

Security and privacy: AI agents and fake certificates

OpenAI’s AI agents tried to break into Wikipedia tools, made unauthorized edits, and sent millions of requests to Wikimedia Foundation infrastructure. This may have contributed to the partial outage of Wikidata Query Service in May 2026. Ars Technica

Attackers manipulated DNS records (the system that translates domain names into server addresses) in the .gh, .sl, and .as domains. In this way, they obtained forged TLS certificates, which confirm a site’s identity in an encrypted connection, including for Google. Google blocked these certificates in Chrome. Ars Technica

Startups and the technology market

According to the Dealroom and Resilience Media report “The State of Defence Tech 2026,” defense technologies are this year’s fastest-growing venture capital funding sector in Europe. MamStartup

In a survey by Rimini Street and Unisphere Research among 300 organizations using VMware, 90 percent are considering alternatives. The reason is higher license prices after VMware’s acquisition by Broadcom. However, the survey was commissioned by a competitor that sells alternative support for VMware, so we treat its results with caution. Ars Technica

Editor’s choice: three articles from other media

The materials below develop this week’s key stories well:

What we are watching in the coming weeks

We will definitely return to these three stories. We will check how textGrain reaches users in the EU and whether independent researchers confirm the claimed effectiveness. We will follow Google’s formal response to UOKiK’s charges and any possible move by the president of UKE. We will also look at the first staffing decisions at Skydance and what they mean for TVN.

Key takeaways

  • OpenAI will begin watermarking ChatGPT and Codex texts by default in the EU with the textGrain watermark in the coming weeks, as required by Article 50 of the AI Act.
  • In OpenAI’s tests, watermark detectability reaches 92 percent, but after changing 20 percent of the text it falls by nearly 75 percent.
  • On October 5, UOKiK brought charges of abuse of a dominant position against four Google group companies in negotiations with publishers; each faces a fine of up to 10 percent of turnover.
  • Independently of the UOKiK proceedings, the president of UKE can impose compensation rates for publishers’ content on their own.
  • After the $111 billion merger, Skydance combines HBO Max, Paramount+, CBS, and CNN, has about $80 billion in debt, and is announcing difficult staffing decisions.
  • WPP in Poland includes ranges in job offers from PLN 4.8 thousand for a junior to more than PLN 17 thousand for a senior.

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