Google Photos to label images edited using AI tools

Google Photos announced a new feature on Thursday (October 24) which will add specific labels highlighting if the image is edited using artificial intelligence (AI) tools, adding more transparency around AI edits.

Google Photos announced this new feature in an official blog post, stating that the AI labels will only be added to images that have been edited using Google Photos’ AI tools, including Magic Editor and Magic Eraser.

However, it is yet to be confirmed whether the Photos app will also label images that are edited using third-party AI tools or not.  

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AI photos will be labelled on Google Photos 

Once rolled out, when users will edit images using AI tools within Google Photos, it will add this information to the metadata of the photos that cannot be removed even when an image is cropped or blurred.

By adding AI information to the metadata, Google is following the technical standards of the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC). Meta and OpenAI follow the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) standard.

Additionally, the information will be visible in file information that can be viewed directly in the Photos app, titled “AI Info” section that will be found in the image details view of Google Photos web as well as app.

This section includes credits to the tool that was used to edit the image and a “Digital Source Type” highlighting whether generative AI or some other tool was used to edit the image.