Claude’s New Watermarks Will Follow Text Even After It’s Copied. The Era of Secret AI Use May Be Ending

Using AI can be empowering, but it can also spark controversy when people try to pass off AI-generated content as actually being human-made. The European Union is wary of the implications of deepfakes and other AI-fashioned material, so a new law mandates that AI-generated content be clearly labeled as such. Reacting to this legal change, Anthropic just announced that it’s adding markers to text written by Claude, starting with the latest generation model and extending, soon, to earlier versions of the chatbot; the change applies, for now, to users inside the EU. It sounds like a subtle shift, but it may have large, long-term implications and affect businesses across the globe. In a blog post announcing the news, Anthropic noted that from now on, in the E.U., “new models will mark AI-generated content” with “machine-readable marking.” This means any text you generate with Claude, for personal or business use, will “carry embedded watermarks” and any generated files will “include digitally signed provenance metadata where supported.” The company explains that it’s conscious that as “AI-generated content becomes commonplace, greater transparency and signals about where content comes from can give people useful context about the information they consume.” So while its move to watermark content is following E.U. law, it’s really a transparency push that’ll help consumers and perhaps the public in general. As well as marking any generated files with relevant metadata, Anthropic notes that “when a supported Claude model generates text, it weaves an imperceptible watermark directly into the text itself.” It’s invisible, so “you won’t see it,” and the company stresses it “doesn’t change the meaning, quality, or readability of Claude’s response.” To ensure that people don’t try to circumvent these protections, Anthropic explains that since these invisible marks are part of the text, they’ll “travel with the text when it’s copied and pasted elsewhere, and may persist through some editing.” Anthropic’s new watermarks will change how businesses worldwide use Claude—and how transparent they are about it.