Google Now Lets You Ask Gemini if an Image Was Created Using AI: How to Use

Google on Thursday announced the rollout of a new feature in the Gemini app, which allows users to verify if an image was generated or edited using the company's artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The Mountain View-based tech giant said this move is aimed at increasing content transparency using SynthID, its digital watermarking technology. This capability will also be expanded to support additional formats beyond images, such as video and audio clips.

SynthID

According to Google, SynthID is embedded in all images generated by its tools. It now provides a verification feature in the Gemini app to check whether an image was generated by Google AI. The company said that visible watermarks are used for free and Pro users, while Ultra subscribers and enterprise tools will have the option of removing visible marks for professional work.

Google is also testing a verification portal called SynthID Detector with journalists and media professionals.

How to Verify if an Image Was Generated or Edited Using Gemini

1. Open the Gemini app and upload the image that you wish to check. Tap the Files icon to upload it from your device or the Gallery icon to upload it from your photo library
2. Once it is uploaded, enter a prompt like, Was this created with Google AI?" or “Is this AI-generated?” in the text field.
3. Gemini will then check for the SynthID watermark and use its own reasoning to return a response
4. The AI tool will tell you what percentage of the image was created using AI

As per Google, SynthID verification is valid for images generated using its proprietary AI tools and won't work with non-Google AI products. The company, notably, recently expanded this feature to academia, researchers, and several media publishers.

Google said that it will expand SynthID verification to support additional formats in the future. Currently limited to images, this capability will be extended to video and audio clips, too. Further, the company also has plans to add SynthID verification to more surfaces, such as Search.

SynthID, notably, was first unveiled by Google DeepMind in August 2023 as a beta project aimed at correctly labelling AI-generated content.