Google released a new website on Tuesday. The platform allows anyone to verify whether an image, video, or audio clip is generated by artificial intelligence. Google previously made this tool available to select journalists, media professionals, and researchers for testing at Google I/O last year. Now, the company is opening access to the tool to everyone.
The verification site supports multiple file formats. For images, it accepts JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, WEBP, AVIF, HEIC, HEIF, TIFF, TIF, and GIF files. For videos, it supports MP4, MOV, and WEBM. For audio, users can upload WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, AAC, and M4A formats.
Google relies on SynthID technology for watermarks
Google uses SynthID to identify whether media is artificial. The company originally introduced SynthID in 2023. Google models such as Nano Banana, Veo, and Lyria use SynthID to watermark generated media. Generation tools like Gemini, Flow, ProducerAI, and Vids also apply these watermarks.
Other companies have adopted the same technology. OpenAI, Nvidia, and Kakao support SynthID. Apple is also said to be adding support soon. OpenAI maintains its own separate site for checking content, while Microsoft and Meta utilize their own standards for watermarking and verifying content.
Verification tools face ongoing technical hurdles
Google integrated SynthID verification directly into the Gemini app and Google Chrome. According to the company, people currently make 1 million requests to verify content every day. Meanwhile, verification tools from Microsoft and Meta are not infallible. They often fail to identify content created by their own makers' models.
Next steps for Google include maintaining public access to the new website and monitoring ongoing usage as daily verification requests continue.
