Used AI for Your Photos? Your Customers Can Check.

If your ads, posts or website use AI-made images, your customers now have a free way to check. On October 7, Google opened its SynthID Detector to everyone.

What happened

Google DeepMind's Pushmeet Kohli wrote that Google is "expanding access to everyone – with the tool available globally in English starting today." Google says: "With the new SynthID Detector, anyone can easily check if an image, video, or audio file was made with AI from Google or our partners, including OpenAI, NVIDIA, Kakao, and soon, Apple." The tool lives at synthid.com.

Google says it has watermarked over 180 billion images and videos, along with 240,000 years of audio content, and that its built-in verification in Search, the Gemini app and Chrome now handles over 1 million requests daily.

The details

When the tool finds a watermark, the result reads "SynthID was detected. This media was made or edited with Google AI." Gemini Apps Help explains that a detected watermark means all or part of the image or video was created or edited by Google's AI models.

According to TechCrunch, supported formats include JPG, PNG, WEBP, HEIC and GIF images, MP4, MOV and WEBM videos, and WAV, MP3 and M4A audio. Google's Nano Banana, Veo and Lyria models, and tools like Gemini, Flow, ProducerAI and Vids, watermark what they generate. TechCrunch dates the site's launch to Tuesday; Google's post is dated Wednesday, October 7.

There are limits. The synthid.com site says: "This is not a general AI detector. We can only detect media from the above companies, who have adopted SynthID technology." Its FAQ adds that a "Watermark not detected" result "does not totally rule out AI generation or manipulation," and that "in very rare cases SynthID can also falsely trigger on non-watermarked content." TechCrunch notes that Microsoft and Meta have their own standards for watermarking and verifying content.

Ars Technica reports that users sign in with a Google, OpenAI or Apple account, that Google gives each user a daily quota of roughly 10 checks, and that ChatGPT images carry SynthID. Google hasn't stated a price.

Why brands should care

For a salon, a restaurant or a clinic, photos are proof. A before-and-after, a plated dish or a photo of your team tells customers what they'll actually get. If one of those turns out to carry an AI watermark, the damage isn't the image, it's the trust.

AI graphics are still fine for promos, backgrounds and illustrations. The problem is passing AI off as real.

What to do

1. Use real photos for proof. Results, food, staff and your space should be your own shots.
2. Label AI graphics. If you made it with ChatGPT or Gemini, say so.
3. Keep your original files. They're your backup if anyone questions a photo.
4. Check your own ad images first. Run them through synthid.com before customers do.
5. Don't over-read a clean result. No watermark doesn't prove an image is real.

Sources

• Google: SynthID Detector expands to everyone
• SynthID Detector
• Google DeepMind: SynthID
• Gemini Apps Help: Verify Google AI-generated images and videos with SynthID
• TechCrunch: Google's new SynthID website can identify AI-generated media
• Ars Technica: Google rolls out improved SynthID detector

FAQ

What is the SynthID Detector?

It's a Google tool that checks whether an image, video or audio file carries a SynthID watermark, meaning it was made or edited with AI from Google or partners including OpenAI, NVIDIA and Kakao.

Can SynthID detect all AI images?

No. Google's site says it is not a general AI detector and can only detect media from companies that have adopted SynthID. Microsoft and Meta use their own watermarking standards.

Does no watermark mean a photo is real?

No. Google's FAQ says a Watermark not detected result does not totally rule out AI generation or manipulation.