Google announced on Friday (14th) that it has introduced a feature allowing users to remove the visible watermark from materials created by its artificial intelligence (AI) models. This new option covers images, videos, and music, but the change does not affect the invisible tagging systems used by the corporation to track AI-generated content.
The company itself clarifies that removing the apparent marking does not compromise SynthID, which is Google's invisible watermarking system, nor the metadata aligned with the C2PA standard, which serves to attest to the origin of digital assets.
Availability and Scope of the Feature
Josh Woodward, Vice President of Gemini, stated in a post on the X platform that this feature will be available in the Nano Banana, Omni, and Lyria models. Users can configure this option in both Gemini and Google's video editor, called Flow; support for Google Search will be implemented at a later stage.
This modification signals a new strategy by Google to handle the identification of AI-produced content. Although visible watermarks help indicate that material was created by AI, they can simultaneously reduce the utility of this content in professional and creative contexts.
According to Woodward, the company's intention is to establish a balance between ensuring freedom of content use and maintaining necessary identification mechanisms. He emphasized: 'We are finding a balance between creative control and safety: although visible watermarks are now optional, the invisible SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata continue to be used for transparency. Thus, it is still possible to use Gemini or Search to verify if an image was generated by AI.'
The implementation of this new alternative will occur gradually in the coming days. Once active, the user will have access to the option via the path Settings > Media Watermark to enable or disable the visual identification of generated content.
Maintenance of Origin Identification
Even while allowing the removal of the visible marking, Google assures that the content will remain equipped with mechanisms that allow for the identification of its origin. SynthID embeds a hidden watermark in the content, while metadata following the C2PA standard provides data about the file's origin. Therefore, the absence of the visual warning does not imply that the content will lose its ability to be recognized as AI creation.
Google itself confirms that users can use Gemini or Search to confirm if an image was generated by AI. In addition to the change in watermarks, the company released the open-source code for a new library called Credentio, which will allow developers to integrate local validation mechanisms into their own applications.
Google's decision comes during a period of intense debate about the best methodology for identifying AI-generated content. For example, the recent decision by Anthropic to incorporate a watermark into texts and files generated by Claude is cited, aiming to comply with European Union (EU) regulations.



