AI ‘Watermarking’ Tools Emerging to Tag Machine-Made Content

Businesses and researchers are developing mechanisms to identify the origins of text and images online as internet users face the increasingly difficult task of distinguishing between what’s made by a human and what’s generated by artificial intelligence.

Tools such as chatbots and image creators have exploded in popularity, with users eager to experiment. Viral misinformation is a concern due to the ease of generating convincing content like recent, widely shared images of Pope Francis sporting a faux white puffer coat or a fake cloud of black smoke near the Pentagon. Academic cheating is another worry, spurring some schools and teachers ...