Google has taken a significant step toward addressing the growing challenge of identifying AI-generated content with the official launch of its SynthID Detector portal to early testers on June 12, 2025.
The verification portal, announced at Google I/O 2025 last month, allows users to upload images, audio, video, or text to determine whether they were created using Google's AI tools. When a SynthID watermark is detected, the system highlights specific portions of the content most likely to contain the watermark, providing granular insights rather than simple yes-or-no answers.
"As generative AI capabilities advance and become more broadly available, questions of authenticity, context, and verification emerge," said Pushmeet Kohli, Vice President of Science and Strategic Initiatives at Google DeepMind. The tool aims to provide essential transparency in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-generated media.
Since its initial introduction in 2023, SynthID has expanded from image watermarking to cover text, audio, and video content generated by Google's Gemini, Imagen, Lyria, and Veo models. According to Google, over 10 billion pieces of content have already been watermarked with this technology, which remains detectable even when content undergoes various transformations or is shared across platforms.
While currently limited to detecting content created with Google's AI tools, the company is working to expand SynthID's ecosystem. Google has already open-sourced its text watermarking framework and partnered with NVIDIA to watermark videos generated by their Cosmos model. Additionally, content verification platform GetReal Security will be able to verify SynthID watermarks.
The tool does have limitations. It cannot detect AI content generated by platforms that don't use SynthID watermarks, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT or Meta's AI tools. Experts also note that extreme modifications to images or adversarial techniques can potentially bypass the watermarks.
Journalists, media professionals, and researchers interested in accessing the SynthID Detector can join Google's waitlist, with broader availability expected in the coming weeks.