Google’s new SynthID website can identify AI-generated media
Google on Tuesday launched a new website that allows anyone to verify whether a piece of media — an image, video, or audio clip — was generated using AI, according to TechCrunch.
The tool was previously made available to select journalists, media professionals, and researchers for testing at Google I/O last year, and Google is now opening access to everyone.
The site supports JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, WEBP, AVIF, HEIC, HEIF, TIFF, TIF, and GIF formats for images; MP4, MOV, and WEBM for videos; and WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, AAC, and M4A for audio.
Google uses SynthID, which it introduced in 2023, to identify whether media is AI-generated. Its Nano Banana, Veo, and Lyria models, along with tools with generation capabilities such as Gemini, Flow, ProducerAI, and Vids, all use SynthID to watermark the media they generate.
OpenAI, Nvidia, and Kakao also support SynthID, and OpenAI maintains its own site for checking content. Apple is said to be adding support soon, too.
Google has built SynthID verification into the Gemini app and Google Chrome. The company said people currently make 1 million requests to verify content every day.
Microsoft and Meta have their own standards for watermarking and verifying content. However, the report notes these tools are not infallible, often failing to identify content created by their makers' models.
Based on reporting from the original publisher. Visit the source for full context and later updates.
Publisher excerpt
Google on Tuesday launched a new site that lets anyone verify whether a piece of media, be it an image, a video, or an audio clip, is generated using AI.