According to foreign media Engadget, Wired and other reports, a research team at the University of Maryland in the United States studied the reliability of the “digital watermark” technology of AI-generated content and found that this technology can be easily cracked.
Soheil Feizi, a professor of computer science at the school, was blunt when faced with the current status of watermarks in AI-generated images: “Currently we do not have any reliable watermark technology, and we have cracked all watermarks.”
During testing, the researchers were able to easily circumvent existing watermarking methods and found it easier to add “fake watermarks” to non-AI-generated images. At the same time, the team has also developed a watermark technology that is “almost impossible” to remove from images without completely compromising the image’s intellectual property.
In a similar study by the University of California, Santa Barbara and Carnegie Mellon University, researchers found that watermarks on AI-generated images can be easily removed through “simulation attacks”: by destructively adjusting brightness and contrast. Either compress or even rotate the image to remove it, or remove it through techniques such as constructive Gaussian blur.
According to reports, AI-generated digital watermarks will become a competition with hackers. This watermark, although invisible to the naked eye, can combat misuse of AI-generated content.
It was previously reported that the U.S. government announced in late July that it had obtained voluntary commitments from a number of leading artificial intelligence companies to add watermarks to content generated by artificial intelligence and other measures to help improve the security of the technology.
Seven companies – Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI – have agreed to improve the security and transparency of their systems, including allowing third-party experts to review their models.
In a statement to TechRadar, the U.S. government said: “Companies that are developing these emerging technologies have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their products. To realize the full potential of artificial intelligence, the U.S. government encourages the industry to adhere to the highest standards to ensure innovation Not at the expense of the rights and safety of Americans.”
