Gemini will now tell you if an image is AI-generated

Generative media seems to be everywhere – from AI text to very realistic-looking images. Google is stepping up to make it easier for users to recognize AI-generated images with a new feature available via Google Gemini 3.

According to the announcement by Google, the detection system relies on SynthID, its digital watermarking technology that embeds imperceptible signals into AI-generated content.

SynthID has watermarked over 20 billion AI-generated pieces of content since its launch in 2023, so Gemini will have an extensive library of AI images to rely on.

Now, if you spot an image and want to confirm its origin (whether it’s human-produced or AI-generated), simply upload it to the Gemini app and ask a question such as: "Was this created with Google AI?" or “Is this AI-generated?”

Relying on its own reasoning, Gemini will check for the SynthID watermark and return a response.

Google is promising to take SynthID verification further and add video and audio recognition formats, as well as bringing these capabilities to more surfaces, such as Search.

“In addition to our own tools, we are collaborating with industry partners to advance content transparency and authenticity standards across our product ecosystem — including YouTube, Search, Pixel and Photos — through our role on the steering committee of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA),” Google says.

Google has added that as part of the development, images generated by Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) in the Gemini app, Vertex AI, and Google Ads will have C2PA metadata embedded starting this week.

Currently, Gemini is limited to identifying only those images that were created using Google’s tools, but the company says that it’s planning to expand its verification approach to support C2PA content credentials beyond Google’s products.

In a simple test we ran on Gemini, it was able to correctly identify two AI-generated and one real image using a combination of SynthID and its own reasoning when prompted.

Gemini went on to give a few more reasons for its thinking and reached a conclusion: "While I can confirm it was not made with Google AI, it is highly likely that the image was created using a different generative AI tool."