Google is trialling a digital watermark to spot images made by artificial intelligence (AI) in a bid to fight disinformation.
Developed by DeepMind, Google’s AI arm, SynthID will identify images generated by machines.
It works by embedding changes to individual pixels in images so watermarks are invisible to the human eye, but detectable by computers.
But DeepMind said it is not “foolproof against extreme image manipulation”.
As the technology evolves, it is becoming increasingly more complex to tell the difference between real images and artificially-generated ones.
AI image generators have become mainstream, with popular tool Midjourney boasting more than 14.5m users.
They allow people to create images in seconds by inputting simple text instructions, leading to questions over copyright and ownership worldwide.
