Google said on October 15, 2026, that TIME named SynthID one of its Best Inventions of 2026. Google announced it on its company blog. Here is what SynthID is and why it matters to anyone who scrolls the web.

A watermark you can't see

A normal watermark is a logo stamped on a photo. SynthID is different. Google says it hides an invisible digital mark inside AI-made images, audio, video and text at the moment they are created. Google says the mark is durable and does not change the quality of what you see or hear.

Think of it as a hidden label that says "an AI made this." You can't spot it with your eyes, but software can read it.

How much it has marked

Google says SynthID has watermarked more than 180 billion images and videos, and 240,000 years of audio. Those are Google's figures. Google also says it recently started using the same idea in synthetic biology, under the name SynthID Bio.

How you can check

Google says tools that read the mark are built into Google Search, the Gemini app and Chrome. It also offers a SynthID Detector for checking content from Google and its partners.

What it does not do

SynthID can only flag content that carries its mark. Google's post says the Detector checks content from Google and its partners. A picture made with a tool that does not use SynthID would not carry the mark, so a clean result does not prove a person made it.

Google's post links to TIME's list but does not quote TIME's write-up, so this story does not either.

Source: Google