via TechCrunch AI
Google Now Lets Users Remove Visible Watermarks from AI-Generated Content
Google announced on Friday that it will now allow users to remove the visible watermark from its AI-generated content, including images, videos, and songs. The company clarified that this change will not affect the invisible SynthID watermark or the metadata associated with the C2PA standard.
Josh Woodward, Google's Vice President for Gemini, explained in a post on X that the toggle to disable the visible watermark will be available for the Nano Banana, Omni, and Lyria models. He noted that the setting will be accessible in Gemini and Google's AI-powered video editor, Flow, with support for Search coming soon.
The move reflects an evolving approach to labeling AI-generated media. While visible watermarks can make content less practical for professional and creative use, the need to identify AI-generated material remains crucial.
"We're striking a balance here between creative control and safety: while the visible watermarks are now optional, invisible SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata are still being used for transparency. So you can still use Gemini or Search to see if an image was AI-generated," Woodward wrote.
The feature is rolling out in the coming days. Once available, users can navigate to Settings > Media Watermark to turn the visible mark on or off.
In a related development, Google is open-sourcing a new library called Credentio, which allows developers to embed a local validation mechanism for C2PA content credentials into their applications.
This decision follows Anthropic's debated move to include watermarks in text and files generated by its Claude AI model, a step taken to comply with EU regulations. Google's approach, however, aims to offer more flexibility for creators while maintaining transparency through invisible markers and metadata.