Removing Watermarks From Images With Gemini Is Now Way Too Easy
As if AI wasn't enough hot water for pirating content for their training, Google's Gemini might get into more trouble before too long. Users of the latest Gemini Flash AI update have found that it's particularly adept at filling in the gaps in pictures. That makes it stellar for removing watermarks from images, as users can simply cut them out and have Gemini fill in the gaps.
Google has been pushing its Gemini large language model AI for some time now, attempting to compete with the likes of Microsoft's Copilot and OpenAI's ChatGPT. It's had some success, but like the others is just flying ahead with ongoing updates to keep up in a race that everyone now appears to be running. It released the new Gemini Flash 2.0 model last week, claiming massive performance improvements—as much as twice as fast as the 1.5 Flash model in the comparative benchmark. But despite its speed, the latest update has proved controversial, as it's particularly good at one thing that's making it perfect for nefarious antics.
Other AI tools are really good at filling in the blanks in images, too, but Gemini Flash is particularly good at it, is very fast at it, and the tool is completely free to use. Where other AI might provide more of a paywall lock on such services, Google's Gemini Flash is already making waves for its mix of accessibility and capabilities.
The image generation feature of Gemini Flash is labelled as "Experimental," as The Verge points out, so it may not be available for long (especially in its current form). But for now, it appears to be very available and increasingly popular. This particular function is already gathering some traction on Reddit and Twitter, where users are highlighting just how good Gemini Flash is at this particularly tricky task.
Other AI models can do this too, but you have to be a bit smarter about how you ask about it. As Verge highlights, Anthropic's latest Claude model, and OpenAI's GPT 4o will refuse to alter watermarked images. We can confirm that when you add copyright-protected images to Microsoft Office applications, its Copilot and Design tools will refuse to modify them directly.
Google hasn't yet commented on this potential problem, but copyright holders are already voicing their concerns. It seems likely that Gemini Flash will be updated again in the future to make using it for watermark removal at least a little more difficult.
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