Customers on social media have found a controversial use case for Google’s new Gemini AI mannequin: eradicating watermarks from photos, together with from photos revealed by Getty Photographs and different well-known inventory media outfits.
Final week, Google expanded entry to its Gemini 2.0 Flash mannequin’s picture era function, which lets the mannequin natively generate and edit picture content material. It’s a highly effective functionality, by all accounts. However it additionally seems to have few guardrails. Gemini 2.0 Flash will uncomplainingly create photos depicting celebrities and copyrighted characters, and — as alluded to earlier — take away watermarks from present photographs.
New talent unlocked: Gemini 2 Flash mannequin is de facto superior at eradicating watermarks in photos! pic.twitter.com/6QIk0FlfCv
— Deedy (@deedydas) March 15, 2025
As a number of X and Reddit customers famous, Gemini 2.0 Flash received’t simply take away watermarks, however try and fill in any gaps created by a watermark’s deletion. Different AI-powered instruments do that, too, however Gemini 2.0 Flash appears to be exceptionally expert at it — and free to make use of.
Gemini 2.0 Flash, obtainable in Google’s AI studio, is wonderful at modifying photos with easy textual content prompts.
It can also take away watermarks from photos (and places its personal refined watermark in as an alternative 🤣) pic.twitter.com/ZnHTQJsT1Z
— Tanay Jaipuria (@tanayj) March 16, 2025
To be clear, Gemini 2.0 Flash’s picture era function is labeled as “experimental” and “not for manufacturing use” in the intervening time, and is simply obtainable in Google’s developer-facing instruments like AI Studio. The mannequin additionally isn’t an ideal watermark remover. Gemini 2.0 Flash seems to battle with sure semi-transparent watermarks and watermarks that canvas massive parts of photos.
Nonetheless, some copyright holders will certainly take situation with Gemini 2.0 Flash’s lack of utilization restrictions. Fashions together with Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet and OpenAI’s GPT-4o explicitly refuse to take away watermarks; Claude calls eradicating a watermark from a picture “unethical and probably unlawful.”
Eradicating a watermark with out the unique proprietor’s consent is taken into account unlawful beneath U.S. copyright legislation (in line with legislation companies like this one) exterior of uncommon exceptions.
Google didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark despatched exterior of regular enterprise hours.
