Google Photos goes official with its tool to spot AI-edited images

Earlier today, we highlighted an upcoming Google Photos feature that would add a new AI Info section to AI-manipulated images. Google has now officially announced the feature, and it will start rolling out to users next week.

In its announcement, Google notes that photos edited with AI-powered tools like Magic Eraser, Magic Editor, and Zoom Enhance already include IPTC metadata to indicate that they are edited using generative AI. The upcoming change makes “this information visible alongside information like the file name, location and backup status in the Photos app.”

As we showcased earlier, the feature will add a new AI Info section to the image description with Credit and Digital source type fields. While Google’s announcement only states that the AI info section will appear on images edited with AI, we’ve discovered that it also shows the IPTC metadata for AI-generated images.

Google adds that it also uses IPTC metadata for images captured using tools like Best Take and Add Me on its Pixel devices, which use non-generative features to combine elements from different photos into one. However, the company has not clarified whether Google Photos will show this metadata to users.