Google Opens SynthID Detector Globally to Check AI-Generated Media

Google has made the SynthID Detector tool available worldwide, which checks images, videos, and audio for invisible watermarks in AI-generated media to help users make informed decisions about what to trust. Pushmeet Kohli, VP of Science at Google DeepMind, announced this release on October 7, 2026, in a blog post. Last year, Google introduced an early version to help media professionals verify AI-generated content.

Access Expands to SynthID Detector

SynthID Detector analyzes media files that are uploaded for watermarks embedded by SynthID. This is currently available globally in English.

How SynthID Detector Checks for Watermarks 

SynthID adds an invisible signal when content is generated, and then the detector searches for the signal when a user uploads a file. This tool supports images, video, and audio.

Google also points to verification features in Search, the Gemini app, and Chrome, which it says now regularly handle over 1 million requests daily. The post doesn’t explain how these features work or where they appear in Search.

If the detector does not find a watermark, it doesn’t prove that the content was made by a human; the content may have been created by another AI system that does not use SynthID.

SynthID Expands Beyond Google

The company says the detector can check media made with AI from partners including OpenAI, NVIDIA, and Kakao, and soon Apple. The post gives no date for Apple.

SynthID, launched in 2023, has already been used to watermark over 180 billion images and videos and around 240,000 years of audio content.

What this Update Means for Publishers and Creators

This global update gives publishers, researchers, and marketers another way to check media before using it somewhere or sharing it. For SEO professionals, this update is useful for visual content where teams can check images, videos, or audio for a SynthID watermark when they are unsure where that media is from.

Google has updated its Search guidance on using generative AI Content; you can read it to learn more. 

Google Expands AI Content Tools

This global release of the SynthID detector is another step toward making AI-generated media easier to recognize because people use AI to create images, videos, and audio, helping users make better decisions.

This latest update from Google focuses on finding its own watermark, which is not a universal system for detecting all AI content. For publishers and marketers, the benefit is a clear way to check supported media.