Customers on social media have found a controversial use case for Googleβs new Gemini AI mannequin: eradicating watermarks from pictures, together with from pictures revealed by Getty Pictures and different well-known inventory media outfits.
Final week, Google expanded entry to its Gemini 2.0 Flash mannequinβs picture technology characteristic, which lets the mannequin natively generate and edit picture content material. Itβs a robust functionality, by all accounts. However it additionally seems to have few guardrails. Gemini 2.0 Flash will uncomplainingly create pictures depicting celebrities and copyrighted characters, and β as alluded to earlier β take away watermarks from current images.
New ability unlocked: Gemini 2 Flash mannequin is actually superior at eradicating watermarks in pictures! pic.twitter.com/6QIk0FlfCv
β Deedy (@deedydas) March 15, 2025
As a number of X and Reddit customers famous, Gemini 2.0 Flash receivedβt simply take away watermarks, however try and fill in any gaps created by a watermarkβs deletion. Different AI-powered instruments do that, too, however Gemini 2.0 Flash appears to be exceptionally expert at it β and free to make use of.
Gemini 2.0 Flash, out there in Googleβs AI studio, is wonderful at modifying pictures with easy textual content prompts.
It can also take away watermarks from pictures (and places its personal delicate watermark in as an alternative π€£) pic.twitter.com/ZnHTQJsT1Z
β Tanay Jaipuria (@tanayj) March 16, 2025
To be clear, Gemini 2.0 Flashβs picture technology characteristic is labeled as βexperimentalβ and βnot for manufacturing useβ in the intervening time, and is just out there in Googleβs developer-facing instruments like AI Studio. The mannequin additionally isnβt an ideal watermark remover. Gemini 2.0 Flash seems to battle with sure semi-transparent watermarks and watermarks that canvas giant parts of pictures.
Nonetheless, some copyright holders will certainly take situation with Gemini 2.0 Flashβs lack of utilization restrictions. Fashions together with Anthropicβs Claude 3.7 Sonnet and OpenAIβs GPT-4o explicitly refuse to take away watermarks; Claude calls eradicating a watermark from a picture βunethical and doubtlessly unlawful.β
Eradicating a watermark with out the unique proprietorβs consent is taken into account unlawful beneath U.S. copyright regulation (in accordance with regulation corporations like this one)Β exterior of uncommon exceptions.
Google didnβt instantly reply to a request for remark despatched exterior of regular enterprise hours.