On Tuesday, Snapchat announced plans to introduce a watermark on images produced using its artificial intelligence (AI) features. This update targets images generated by the platform’s premium functionalities, including the conversational chatbot ‘My AI’ and the Dreams feature. The watermark will serve to identify these images as AI-generated and will be visible both within the app and on exports to a user’s camera roll.
In a statement released on its website, Snap, the parent company, highlighted its ongoing commitment to transparency in user interactions with AI content. Since 2015, the company has rolled out various AI-based features, including augmented reality (AR) lenses, My AI, and generative AI chat wallpaper.
Snapchat’s initiative will see the addition of a watermark that incorporates the company’s ghost logo accompanied by a sparkle icon, both indicative of AI generation. This visual marker aims to clarify the nature of the images for users.
The platform’s support page emphasizes the importance of retaining the ‘Ghost with sparkles’ watermark on AI-generated images, warning users that its removal constitutes a violation of Snapchat’s terms of service.
In comparison, OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 adheres to the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) standards, embedding AI-related details into image metadata. Google offers a similar feature through its watermarking technology, SynthID, for multimedia content generated using its services.
Snapchat further detailed that all AI functions undergo rigorous internal evaluations and red teaming processes. This method allows external independent teams to test the features critically, helping identify potential weaknesses in the AI models.
Currently, access to the My AI feature for generating AI images is limited to Snapchat+ subscribers, although general users can still create up to eight Dream images per session. These functionalities were integrated into the platform last year, with Snapchat+ available in India at a cost of Rs. 49 monthly or Rs. 499 annually.
