Google: Photos Edited with Magic Editor to Feature Digital Watermarks

While Google’s AI-powered Magic Editor feature is no doubt impressive, there’s no doubt that any AI-based editing software still runs the risk of being used for more less-than-noble reasons, especially given how AI-related scams and misinformation are prevalent nowadays. With that in mind, Google recently announced that it’s implementing a digital watermark system using SynthID’s technology.

For those unfamiliar, SynthID is a means of embedding digital watermarks within AI-generated audio, text and even video, which will be used to mark photos edited using Magic Editor’s “Reimagine” function. It’s actually already used in AI-generated images created via Google’s Imagen AI model, allowing users to distinguish AI-made content.

READ: Google Finally Adds a Basic Feature to its Photos App

Google does clarify that there might be some cases where SynthID might have trouble detecting AI edits, especially if they’re small – for example, if you change the colour of a rose petal in the background of a photo, the system might not be able to identify and label it as an AI-edited image. Google adds that it will continue working with user feedback and transparency regarding AI edits made in Google Photos.