The new SynthID detector will tell you if it detects a watermark from any of the supported companies.
Credit: Google
The new SynthID detector will tell you if it detects a watermark from any of the supported companies.
Credit: Google
You must sign in to use the tool, but it supports Google, OpenAI, and Apple accounts. While the detector is available to anyone, the login requirement limits how much you can use it. Google says each user gets “a daily usage quota of approximately 10 image, video, and audio checks.”
Previous detection tools had a similar limit. Google engineers have told Ars that limiting access is necessary to prevent people from using the checks to develop SynthID removal tools. The confusion over the exact number is probably because the system may lock you in early if you are reviewing multiple images that are very similar. This could indicate that someone is trying to fine-tune a bypass workflow.
Label lies
Expanding access to SynthID detection is a good thing: it’s a single, convenient destination to check media for the signature of popular AI tools. However, Google partners are far from the only sources of AI content.
Some model providers use different watermarking technologies (such as Meta), while others do not use any watermarking. And then there are open models that people can run on their own hardware to produce increasingly realistic AI content that doesn’t even include simple metadata tagging.
That means there is a lot of AI content that will not be identified as AI in the SynthID tool. The website will have a disclaimer stating this. It’s also possible that, despite Google’s efforts, someone will find a way to remove SynthID, making existing AI content appear more legitimate. It’s not a perfect system, but that’s the reality of relying on proactive AI image watermarking, which is proliferating on the Internet at an astonishing rate.
The best approach might be the opposite: using cryptographic technologies like C2PA to tag real images, videos, and audio as they are created. Google’s Pixel phones are among the few devices that do just that. In the meantime, SynthID is the best option you have for identifying AI fakes.
