Comment by WhatIsDukkha
7 hours ago
This is just performative nonsense.
As someone that creates things with tools with different media I would just hard avoid this tool that adds...
arbitrary metadata not of my choosing.
Should I seriously make a texture for a videogame with this weird DRM glorp in it?
How old is photoshop and why is it exempt?
Just because something isn't perfect doesn't mean it's not useful. I've already seen posts online that were able to be proven as falsified because someone ran the images through Google for SynthID checks.
> How old is photoshop and why is it exempt?
For one, it's not developed by Google or OpenAI. The barrier to entry to making realistic but deceptive images with Photoshop is far higher than with AI, and there are already techniques that can, imperfectly, be used to detect the use of traditional image editing.
So 999 people that are just making an image need to be DRM'ed so that you might catch the 1 person making "realistic but deceptive" images... like this is some kind of special case of ... internet images.
This isn't DRM right? This is metadata attached to the image that makes it clear it was synthetically generated. The public has a huge incentive to know when images are AI generated and the harm to legitimate users seems pretty small: aka someone might complain online that you use AI
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I mean I see a lot of images online where people forget or don't care enough to remove/crop the Gemini watermark.
I guarantee this works poorly, at best.
If this actually works solidly, Google is in deep, deep, deep shit. It would mean that I can put a mark on my non-AI videos and demand that Google not allow upload of my identifiably copyrighted content.
This would completely obliterate YouTube.
No, it wouldn't. ContentID is already used by Google for that exact purpose. They appear to be fully in favor of enforcing IP law provided the owning party raises a complaint.
>How old is photoshop and why is it exempt?
I'm sure you can think of a couple things that differentiate gen AI from photoshop, I believe in you.
The main difference is we are in the middle of a moral panic and people have lost perspective.
Its a tool with different modalties and affordances.
When I saw the article I was initially skeptical. I do look down on OpenAI, Google, and other such companies.
But on second thought it is not a bad idea to be able to have a quick tool to identify an image as AI generated.
And after reading your reaction to it, I am sure now that the watermark is for the best.
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Strictly speaking, DRM = digital rights management, which is related to intellectual property.
SynthID would only be DRM if Google/OpenAI were claiming IP rights over their images. I don’t even know if that’s legal though.
What value does "strictly speaking" bring to the discussion?
So that you don't have to address any of the issues?
Words matter? DRM means digital rights management, not simply any kind of metadata a person doesn’t like.
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Because DRM is primarily used to ensure the content is not shared in a way the owner does not allow. That is not what SynthID is doing. All it does is allow people to know it is a generated image specifically for when it starts to be widely shared on the internet.
So strictly speaking brings a lot to the discussion when you actually think about it. Stating that DRM != SynthID is addressing issues where people seem to think that DRM == SynthID. Those people are wrong, and strictly speaking need to be corrected.
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Accuracy is valuable.
For the record: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots
> How old is photoshop and why is it exempt?
How does today’s maximum theoretical disinformation output per minute compare to 2021 Photoshop?
Its 2026... people are deliberately choosing to live in their own realities with no care about objective facts or moral choices.
So weird images are a big problem? No they don't matter at all.
Political deepfakes on the mind here more than weird stuff.
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If they don't matter, neither does a watermark.
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You: "performative nonsense! Arbitrary metadata not of my choosing!"
Also you: well, games go through some kind of distribution, which has plenty of telemetry and metadata. Whether it is App Store with notarization, or Steam or Itch who collect analytics and know a lot about you, or your ISP if you self host your eclectic WebGL game from home. Posting on an iPhone or Android phone, to hacker News which has your email address, on your cell network which has IPv6 globally unique addresses...
"But my choosing!" You'll say. It is extremely performative of you to say, "everything that would make me 200% wrong isn't valid."
I don't know. I really hate these vibes-driven reactions to (checks notes) content attribution. Every accusation is a confession in this frame of mind. How do you not see that?
You are asserting that the existence of metadata in other venues to be proof that this form of watermarking metadata is just fine with you and should be for everyone else because... nope don't see any reason listed here.
I have an IP address so therefore this is all fine?
"Every accusation is a confession" also seems like an insinuation that I have something to hide but you have "nothing to hide, nothing to fear"ie the very generic privacy right fallacy.
As for "vibes driven"... this whole technical "fix" is a result of the reactionary "vibe" of the ai moral panic, your "notes" don't seem to be providing any perspective there?