Google's latest AI sparks controversy for erasing watermarks from images
What's the story
Google's latest artificial intelligence (AI) model, Gemini 2.0 Flash, is making waves for its capability to remove watermarks from images. Intended for image generation and editing, the AI has been spotted erasing watermarks from stock photos on leading platforms such as Getty Images. Users on social media platforms X and Reddit have claimed that not only does Gemini erase the watermark but also fills in the missing parts of the image seamlessly.
Ethical dilemma
Ethical concerns arise over watermark removal capability
While the capability to remove watermarks may appear advantageous, it poses serious ethical and legal concerns. In most instances, removing a watermark without permission is illegal under US copyright law. Other AI models such as OpenAI's GPT-4o and Anthropic's Claude 3.7 refuse to carry out the task due to ethical concerns. However, Gemini continues its watermark removal operation successfully for now.
Twitter Post
Gemini 2.0 Flash at work
Gemini 2.0 Flash, available in Google's AI studio, is amazing at editing images with simple text prompts.
— Tanay Jaipuria (@tanayj) March 16, 2025
It also can remove watermarks from images (and puts its own subtle watermark in instead 🤣) pic.twitter.com/ZnHTQJsT1Z
Usage restrictions
Google's stance on Gemini's watermark removal feature
Google has labeled Gemini's image generation capability as "experimental" and "not ready for production use." At the moment, the feature is only available via Google's AI Studio, a tool designed specifically for developers. The model does struggle with certain kinds of watermarks, especially semi-transparent ones or those that cover a large portion of an image. Despite these caveats, its capability has raised eyebrows in the tech community.