Claude is going to start putting invisible watermarks on AI text & images

Anthropic announced Tuesday that it will embed invisible watermarks and digitally signed metadata into text and images generated by its Claude AI models, including Claude Code and Claude Cowork, to comply with the European Union's Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content. The policy, which users cannot opt out of, drew immediate backlash on X and Reddit, with critics like radio host Erick Erickson calling it 'ridiculous' and coders warning it could degrade output. Anthropic acknowledged the watermarks are not foolproof and may be removed by heavy editing or file format changes.

Backlash to a plan by Anthropic http://forbes.com.au/topics/Anthropic to start including an invisible watermark on text and images generated by the Claude http://forbes.com.au/topics/Claude AI model intensified Tuesday as users railed against the idea of AI use being detectable in their work. Key Takeaways - The , which brings Anthropic into compliance with European Union regulations, was announced Tuesday and will put embedded watermarks into media created by Claude. new policy - Claude-generated writing will carry an invisible watermark that will “travel with the text when it’s copied and pasted elsewhere,” and other files the AI creates, including images, will now include digitally signed metadata. - Exactly what that looks like in practice remains to be seen: Anthropic says it will publish more information about how to recognize the watermarks, and warned they won’t be foolproof—text watermarks may be erased if the writing is heavily edited and a file’s metadata could disappear if the format of the file changes, a screenshot is taken or through other means. - The new policy, which users cannot opt out of, will apply to all Claude models and products worldwide, including Claude Code and Claude Cowork. - The plan was hit with rapid backlash on X and Reddit, where users called it “ ” and “ bulls— ,” and hugely problematic an end to “the era of unprovable AI writing.” declared - The bulk of grievances came from people who claimed to use Claude only for proofreading text they’d written on their own, and coders, who said they adding a cryptographic signature to a code will “degrade the output.” worry Crucial Quote “I had ditched Grammarly for Claude for proofreading because it does a better job,” radio show host and blogger Erick Erickson posted to X https://x.com/EWErickson/status/2086953512840126570 . “But now the stuff I’ve written will be watermarked that Claude did the work. This is ridiculous.” Tangent The new policy announcement launched an online debate about who should be credited for AI-generated work: the machine that made it, or the person who told it to? One Reddit user launched a vigorous discussion by claiming human users should get credit for AI model-generated content, not the machine: “I gave the instructions, context, decisions, and countless refinements, Claude was the tool,” they said https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1vlckt9/claude watermarking our work is unethical and/ . Commenters who disagreed the watermark is not Claude “claiming credit, it’s acknowledging the content is AI created.” Others argued to not credit AI is unethical: “Claude created the work and ALL you did was give instructions. If your supervisor came to you and gave you instructions on a project and once you completed it, he/she then proceeded to take 100% credit for it, you might be understandably upset. Why? because all your supervisor did was give instructions and you applied your knowledge and expertise and did the coding,” one commenter https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1vlckt9/comment/p30b4rt/ said . https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1vlckt9/comment/p318g45/ wrote Key background The new policy brings Anthropic into compliance with an EU regulation https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/code-practice-ai-generated-content called the “Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content.” It provides rules for marking and detecting AI-generated and manipulated content, and for labeling of deepfakes and other AI-generated or altered text. As of the end of July, nearly had signed the code and agreed to comply, including Anthropic, Meta, Microsoft and Open AI. Google has been watermarking its AI-generated images since 2023 and has since expanded to text, audio and video. OpenAI also uses invisible watermarking for images. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/strong-backing-code-practice-transparency-ai-generated-content 200 companies Surprising Act OpenAI has long had the tech to watermark its text output from models like ChatGPT, but has chosen not to release it. Internal debate over whether or not to deploy it has been going on for years, according to the Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-tool-chatgpt-cheating-writing-135b755a but arguments about false positives, circumvention and concerns it will drive users to competitors has won out—for now. Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed? Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google. Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here .