Google to Allow Removal of Visible Watermarks from AI-Generated Content

Google announced on Friday that users will have the option to remove visible watermarks from its AI-generated content, including images, videos, and songs. The company emphasized that this update will not impact the invisible SynthID watermark or metadata related to the C2PA standard.

Josh Woodward, Vice President for Gemini, shared the news in a post on X, stating that the toggle for removing visible watermarks will be available for the company’s Nano Banana, Omni, and Lyria models. Users will be able to access this setting in Gemini and Google’s video editing tool, Flow, with support for Search expected to be added soon.

This development marks a shift in how AI-generated media is labeled, addressing concerns that visible watermarks can hinder the utility of content for professional and creative applications, while still maintaining a method for identifying AI-generated material. “We’re striking a balance here between creative control and safety,” Woodward stated. “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,” he added.

The feature will begin rolling out in the coming days. Once it is available, users can navigate to Settings > Media Watermark to toggle the visible watermark on or off.

In conjunction with this update, Google is also open-sourcing a new library called Credentio, which will allow developers to incorporate a local validation mechanism in their applications.

This announcement follows a controversial move by Anthropic to introduce watermarks in text and files generated by its Claude AI to meet EU regulations.