Is that video AI? Gemini can now help you figure it out - but there's a catch

Screenshot by Artie Beaty/ZDNET

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• Gemini tin present archer if a video was made with Google AI.
• The instrumentality tin lone observe Google AI, not different companies.
• Verification is disposable successful each languages supported by Gemini.  

It's getting harder and harder to archer if a video is existent oregon AI, but a caller instrumentality from Google could marque it a small easier to decide.

Google has announced an expansion of its contented transparency tools that includes the quality for Gemini to place whether a video was created oregon edited with Google AI tools. It introduced a akin capableness for images just a fewer weeks ago.

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The lone drawback is that the instrumentality lone identifies Google videos, not ones that mightiness person been created with different tools. Still, it's a utile instrumentality to assistance enactment alert of what you're watching.

To trial a video, upload it to Gemini and ask, "Was this generated utilizing Google AI?" Gemini volition hunt some the audio and video for an invisible SynthID watermark that's contiguous successful everything Google AI creates. Gemini volition springiness a effect like, "No SynthID detected" oregon "SynthID detected wrong the video betwixt 5-20 seconds and audio betwixt 10-20 seconds."

You tin upload videos up to 100 MB and 90 seconds long.

Does Gemini's AI detection work?

To trial the feature, I created videos with 3 antithetic AI representation generators -- Gemini, Bing, and Adobe Firefly (Gemini followed the punctual the champion if you're curious). I saved the videos to my phone, emailed them to different address, and past downloaded them onto different instrumentality and uploaded each 3 to Gemini. 

Gemini correctly flagged the 1 it had produced arsenic having a SynthID successful some the audio and video. For the 2nd and 3rd videos, Gemini correctly said they weren't made with Google tools arsenic they didn't incorporate a Google watermark, but it wasn't imaginable to find if they were made with different AI tools.

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I asked Gemini if it could inactive conjecture based connected what it knew astir communal problems with AI-generated videos. A fewer seconds later, it returned 7 close reasons wherefore that video was apt generated with AI. So adjacent if a video wasn't created with Gemini, fto that beryllium a reminder that Gemini tin inactive beryllium utile successful deciding if it's existent oregon not.

Google said that representation and video verification are present disposable successful each languages and countries supported by the Gemini app.