According to Google, it intends to roll out changes to Google Search that will make it clearer which images in results were produced or edited by artificial intelligence. Starting later this year, Google will add flags to images on Search, Google Lens, and Android’s Circle to Search if they were made or changed using AI tools.
Google will only flag images that have “C2PA tags”. C2PA stands for Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, a group working on ways to trace an image’s history on devices and software used. Many big tech companies help with C2PA including Google, Microsoft, and Adobe. However, not all AI tools add these tags yet. Also, the tags can become hard to read over time.
The flags will help people know when AI was involved, but won’t block or remove the images. Deepfakes and other AI-edited media have been confusing more users. One report showed scams using AI content jumped over 245% from 2023 to 2024. Another group expects losses from deepfake scams to grow from $12 billion to $40 billion by 2027. Surveys also find most people want to avoid being tricked by AI images.
While not perfect, Google’s changes are a good first step. As AI keeps advancing, search engines need to build trust by revealing when machines – and not humans – produced the results people see. Google promises to share more plans later for properly labeling AI images across its services like YouTube too. With cooperation from AI creators, Google Search could lead the effort for transparency in the rising tide of artificial media online.
