AI Watermark

AI Watermark is metadata or steganographic mark embedded in AI-generated content to identify it. There are two approaches: explicit metadata (C2PA standard from Adobe and Google - a special block in EXIF ​​with a certificate of origin) and invisible steganographic marks in pixels or audio waves.

For marketers, this is relevant in two scenarios. The first is compliance: advertising platforms and media are starting to require labeling of AI content (meta-policy has already been introduced, Yandex is testing). If you use AI images in advertising, you better be prepared for the fact that it will require tagging. The second is protection: if you publish real photos in a campaign, you should make sure that they do not contain random AI artifacts that detectors can mark as generated.

In practice, the reliability of AI content detectors is still low: false positives on real photos are common. I recommend not relying on the AI ​​detector as proof or disproof of authenticity - only as one of the signals.