What you need to know
- Google is adding a SynthID watermark checker in the Gemini app for videos.
- This tool can reveal whether a video was generated or modified with Google AI.
- The addition follows the SynthID watermark verification feature that debuted for images in the Gemini app last month.
AI-generated content will continue to be harder to discern from real photos and videos over time, which makes watermarking and digital metadata more important. If you want to find out whether a video is real or generated with AI, it can be tricky to do so. There are varying online tools that can try to spot AI-generated content, but Google is building an “imperceptible” watermarking technology called SynthID to help users tell if something is real or fake.
Starting now, Gemini can verify the authenticity of videos using SynthID in the Gemini app. This video checker can reveal if uploaded content was created or edited with Google AI in any way. Google says over 20 billion pieces of AI-generated content have been watermarked using SynthID, which digitally watermarks Google AI creations from Veo generations to AI edits in Google Photos.
To use the feature, upload a video to the Gemini app and ask a question like “was this generated using Google AI?” Then, Gemini will scan the video and respond with its findings, which include specifics as to what parts of the content (if any) were created or modified with AI.
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Gemini might respond with something like “SynthID detected within the audio between 10-20 secs. No SynthID detected in the visuals,” according to Google’s blog post.
The video verification feature does arrive with a few limitations. To upload a video for identification in the Gemini app, it must be 100MB or smaller and 90 seconds long or shorter. Additionally, this feature can only spot videos created with Google AI tools using the SynthID watermark — it won’t uncover details about content generated with third-party software.
The new addition to the Gemini app follows SynthID photo verification, which debuted in November.
“SynthID adds an invisible digital watermark to an AI-generated image (or video segment),” Google explains on the DeepMind website. “The watermark doesn’t change the image or video quality. It’s added the moment content is created, and designed to stand up to modifications like cropping, adding filters, changing frame rates, or lossy compression.”
Now, Gemini users can quickly and easily check the authenticity of photos and videos in the Gemini app everywhere it’s available.
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