Google has made its SynthID Detector available globally, giving users a new way to check whether images, videos and audio files contain digital watermarks indicating they were generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
The wider rollout, announced on October 7, 2026, expands access to the tool beyond journalists and media professionals who had been testing it since its initial launch in 2025, according to Techpoint.
The detector is available in English and is designed to identify SynthID watermarks embedded in AI-generated content.
Unlike visible labels, SynthID inserts an imperceptible digital signal into media when it is created. For images and videos, the watermark is embedded in the pixels, while in audio it is incorporated into the waveform.
Google says the technology is designed to remain detectable even when content undergoes common modifications, including cropping, filtering, compression and changes to video frame rates.
Users can upload an image, video or audio file to the detector to check whether it contains the watermark.
However, the tool is not a universal AI detection system. It identifies content carrying SynthID rather than determining whether any media without the watermark was created by artificial intelligence.
Google says the technology can detect watermarks in content generated by its own AI tools and those of partners, including OpenAI, NVIDIA and Kakao, with Apple expected to join later.
The expansion comes as AI-generated images, videos and audio become increasingly realistic, making it more difficult for users to distinguish synthetic media from authentic recordings.
Google said it had watermarked more than 180 billion images and videos, as well as the equivalent of 240,000 years of audio, since introducing SynthID in 2023.
The company says the detector provides an additional way for users to establish whether digital content carries a recognised AI watermark, although its findings do not independently establish the authenticity of material that lacks one.
WARNING! All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express permission from ZAMBIA MONITOR.
The post Techbytes: Google opens AI content detector to public first appeared on Zambia Monitor.