8 October 2026

Google opens SynthID Detector tool to identify AI-generated images and video

First reported

Ars Technica and The Decoder ran this on 7 October, a day before the other 2 sources picked it up.

Google released SynthID Detector as a free web tool anyone with a Google, Apple or OpenAI account can use to check whether images, video and audio were created or edited by AI models from Google, OpenAI, Nvidia or Kakao.
The tool detects invisible watermarks embedded in AI-generated content, but only works on media that carries a SynthID watermark. It cannot identify AI content from other systems, including Claude or Grok.
Google cannot distinguish between content entirely created by AI and content merely edited by AI, meaning it cannot pinpoint which parts of edited media are fake and which are real.

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