To help combat online misinformation, Google plans to roll out new features to its image search to help users spot AI-generated content.
The features, due out later this year, include an "about this image" option and a hidden markup that will help label AI-created images.
-
"About this image" will provide additional details about an image, such as its origin,;when it was first indexed by Google, and where it's appeared online so far.
- Users will be able to view the details by clicking on an image's three dots in Google Image results.
- The purpose is twofold: to help users discern whether an image was created using AI and to verify its authenticity through other websites.
-
Google also plans to add an invisible "markup" to any image produced by its AI models to indicate that they were generated by a computer.
- Although this metadata would not be visible to people, software like Google Search could interpret and label it as AI to warn users.
- For example, Google could provide a warning that says, "Image self-labeled as AI-generated."
- Midjourney, Shutterstock, and other publishers have also agreed to adopt the markup.