Microsoft starts watermarking Bing Image Creator generated images

2 min. read

Published on June 14, 2023

published on June 14, 2023

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At the beginning of this year, Microsoft shifted its focus to generative AI, which led to the debut of the new Bing, Later on in March, the company released Bing Image Creator in creator mode that OpenAI’s DALL∙E model powers to enhance the new Bing and Edge preview experience by providing users with better search, complete answers, a new chat experience, and the ability to create content.

Bing Image Creator essentially lets users create images using their own words. Microsoft indicated that the addition will accelerate the comprehension rate as the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than texts.

At OnMSFT, we’ve been using the tool to generate some of our featured images(with attribution, of course), but still, there hasn’t been an easy way for one to tell an image has been created by leveraging AI capabilities. However, last month, during Microsoft’s annual developer conference, Build 2023, the company announced that it was working on elaborate measures to ensure that it would be easier for users to identify AI-generated content from Bing Image Creator and Microsoft Designer.

For those unfamiliar with Microsoft Designer, it’s an artificially intelligent social media platform that can generate online content such as social media posts, greeting cards, branding, alerts, promotions, and more. It was first teased in 2022 and shipped to preview earlier this year in January.

And is at now seems. Microsoft has started rolling out these changes to users. Earlier today, while generating an image for a post I was working on, I noticed a subtle Bing icon at the bottom of the image. This clearly indicates that Microsoft is now watermarking Bing Image Creator generated images with metadata indicating their original source. I can’t say the same about Microsoft Designer since it still works as before (no watermark), at least for me.

Here’s an illustration of how a Bing Image Creator generated image looks like now:

Moving on, it would still be easy for anyone to generate an image using the tool, crop out the metadata and use it elsewhere as their own. Perhaps, Microsoft could be working on a better way to implement this feature. We invite you to check out our expert guide on generating and editing Bing Image Creator images within Microsoft Edge.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time). For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web. Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they're looking for.