Google open-sourced its watermarking tool for AI-generated text

Developers can now use Google’s SynthID text watermarking tool to detect whether text outputs have come from their own models. Google’s SynthID text watermarking technology, a tool the company created to make AI-generated text easier to identify, is now available open-source through the Google Responsible Generative AI Toolkit, the company announced on X. “Now, other [generative] AI developers will be able to use this technology to help them detect whether text outputs have come from their own [large language models], making it easier for more developers to build AI responsibly,” Pushmeet Kohli, the vice president of research at Google DeepMind, told MIT Technology Review.

Google claims the system, which it’s already integrated into its Gemini chatbot, doesn’t compromise the quality, accuracy, creativity, or speed of generated text, which has long been an issue with watermarking systems. Google says it can work on text as short as three sentences, as well as text that’s been cropped, paraphrased, or modified. But it struggles with short text, content that’s been rewritten or translated, and even responses to factual questions. “SynthID isn’t a silver bullet for identifying AI generated content,” Google wrote in a blog post in May.“[But it] is an important building block for developing more reliable AI identification tools and can help millions of people make informed decisions about how they interact with AI-generated content.”