Google’s got Spirit (yes it does)

Google has introduced a new feature called Spirit, which is a text watermarking process for its AI model Claude, developed by Anthropic. The feature has been criticized as a perversion of writing by Daring Fireball. The announcement was made in the 9to5Google newsletter Inbox, which covers the most important tech stories from the last couple of days.

Good morning. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Today I’m reading more about Anthropic’s strange new text watermarking process https://daringfireball.net/2026/08/anthropics watermark text adulteration in claude is a perversion of writing , watching this historic Joshua Baéz home run recap https://youtu.be/o3gVACCqgsw on repeat, listening to the incredible new Phoebe Bridgers album https://open.spotify.com/album/2NSzwyYvQvdOQAoEjrlw9c , and getting stuck into Daniel Mason’s new satire, Country People https://www.danielmasonbooks.com/ . As a reminder, Inbox is the tech newsletter you should be able to read in around 95 seconds. We cover the most important 9to5Google stories from the last couple of days along with a few highlights from around the web. We publish every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you like what you read, please subscribe https://9to5google.beehiiv.com/subscribe .