Google opens SynthID detector to the public worldwide

Google has made its SynthID Detector available to the public worldwide in English, allowing users to check images, videos and audio for watermarks associated with Google and participating artificial-intelligence companies. The tool detects supported SynthID signals, not AI-generated media in general, so a result showing no watermark does not establish that a file was made by a person. Google says the detector recognizes supported watermarks from Google, OpenAI, NVIDIA and Kakao. Apple support is planned, but was not yet available when the public launch was announced. Users must sign in with a Google, OpenAI or Apple account to submit media for checking. The detector was previously available to journalists, researchers and other media professionals. Its public release gives anyone access to the same basic check: whether a submitted file contains a detectable SynthID watermark. A positive result identifies a supported signal, but does not say whether the entire file was generated by AI or only edited with it, nor does it provide a full account of how the content was made. The limits are central to interpreting the results.