A sizzling potato: Google lately expanded availability of its Gemini 2.0 Flash mannequin to extra builders, and it did not take lengthy for people to unearth its new capabilities. One in all its talents to take away watermarks from inventory pictures is so spectacular that Google might need to nerf it with a view to keep away from future authorized motion.
Social media is abuzz with Gemini 2.0 Flash’s potential to take away watermarks from licensed work, a follow that’s deemed unlawful by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Such pictures litter inventory images companies though in lots of instances, an figuring out emblem, textual content, or sample is used to discourage unauthorized use. If you’d like the rights to an unaltered picture with none watermarks, you will want to pay for a license.
Watermarks have been round within the digital imaging area for many years, and folks have been erasing them for years. Initially, this was one thing that was executed manually utilizing a picture enhancing program and will take loads of time. Ultimately, applications and on-line companies emerged that automated the method though outcomes may fluctuate wildly.
New ability unlocked: Gemini 2 Flash mannequin is absolutely superior at eradicating watermarks in pictures! pic.twitter.com/6QIk0FlfCv
– Deedy (@deedydas) March 15, 2025
Early examples of Gemini 2.0 Flash’s capabilities shared on-line, nonetheless, are among the many most spectacular we now have seen up to now from an automatic service. Not each occasion is flawless, however many are very satisfactory. Some are actually questioning if they’re too good, and if Google will find yourself eradicating the function over worry that it’d appeal to a lawsuit from a significant participant like Getty Photos, which lately bought rival inventory media supplier Shutterstock for $3.7 billion.
As TechCrunch highlights, others within the AI area have beforehand reached this fork within the street and acted on it. For instance, OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet will flat out refuse to take away sure watermarks from pictures when requested.
The excellent news for Google is that it is nonetheless early days, and this model of Gemini 2.0 Flash is taken into account experimental. One would suppose that designation would give Google time to make any needed modifications with out going through an excessive amount of bother in court docket.
