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A scorching potato: Google lately expanded availability of its Gemini 2.0 Flash mannequin to extra builders, and it did not take lengthy for folk to unearth its highly effective capabilities. Considered one of its skills is so spectacular that Google may need to nerf it with a purpose to keep away from future authorized motion.
Social media is abuzz with Gemini 2.0 Flash’s means to take away watermarks from licensed work, a apply that’s deemed illegal by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Such pictures litter inventory pictures companies though in lots of circumstances, an figuring out emblem, textual content, or sample is used to discourage unauthorized use. In order for you the rights to an unaltered picture with none watermarks, you will want to pay for a license.
Watermarks have been round within the digital imaging area for many years, and other people have been erasing them for years. Initially, this was one thing that was completed manually utilizing a picture enhancing program and will take a number of time. Ultimately, applications and on-line companies emerged that automated the method though outcomes might range wildly.
New ability unlocked: Gemini 2 Flash mannequin is actually superior at eradicating watermarks in pictures! pic.twitter.com/6QIk0FlfCv
– Deedy (@deedydas) March 15, 2025
Early examples of Gemini 2.0 Flash’s capabilities shared on-line, nevertheless, are among the many most spectacular we have now seen so far from an automatic service. Not each occasion is flawless, however many are very satisfactory. Some are actually questioning if they’re too good, and if Google will find yourself eradicating the characteristic over concern that it’d appeal to a lawsuit from a significant participant like Getty Photographs, which lately purchased rival inventory media supplier Shutterstock for $3.7 billion.
As TechCrunch highlights, others within the AI area have beforehand reached this fork within the highway and acted on it. For instance, OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet will flat out refuse to take away sure watermarks from pictures when requested.
The excellent news for Google is that it is nonetheless early days, and this model of Gemini 2.0 Flash is taken into account experimental. One would suppose that designation would give Google time to make any obligatory adjustments with out dealing with an excessive amount of hassle in court docket.
