Anthropic announced Monday that new versions of its Claude AI models will embed an “imperceptible watermark” into the text they generate, a move that could make it harder to pass off AI slop as being created by humans.
Business Insider reports that the watermark does not change the meaning or readability of the text, according to Anthropic. It travels with the content when copied and pasted and “may persist through some editing,” the company said.
A watermark is a faint pattern or hidden marker embedded in digital content, such as photos or documents, to help identify its origin and prevent unauthorized copying.
Anthropic said the feature is part of its commitments toward greater transparency under the European Union AI Act. Upcoming Claude models will support the watermarking from the start, and Anthropic said it is working to extend the function to older models. The markings will apply to Claude-generated content worldwide, including when the model is accessed through cloud providers. Anthropic also said it plans to give third parties tools to detect the watermarks.
The change could mark a turning point for the publishing industry, which has faced repeated controversies over AI-generated writing. Last month, a book agent withdrew support for the crime novel Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body after questions arose about whether the author had used AI to write it. Fourteen publishers had bid for the book’s rights, and a deal was finalized before the agent apologized. The author, Jerry Falade, denied using AI in writing the novel.
Earlier this year, Hachette pulled Mia Ballard’s horror novel Shy Girl following allegations that it contained AI-generated writing. Ballard told the New York Times that she had not used AI to write the book, but said a freelance editor had introduced AI-generated material without her knowledge.
Breitbart News previously reported that a book on truth in the AI age included fake, AI-generated quotes:
In a statement released Monday night, Rosenbaum acknowledged that the book contained “a handful of improperly attributed or synthetic quotes” and said he had launched his own investigation into the matter. He characterized the inclusion of incorrect quotes as accidental and stated he had “no intention of fabricating any viewpoints” during the writing process.
“As I disclosed in the book’s acknowledgments, I used A.I. tools ChatGPT and Claude during the research, writing and editing process,” Rosenbaum said in the statement. “That does not excuse these errors, of which I take full responsibility. I am now working with the editors to thoroughly review and quickly correct any affected passages; any future editions will be corrected.”
The book was published by an imprint of BenBella Books and distributed by Simon and Schuster. BenBella Books, which operates independently of Simon and Schuster, did not respond to requests for comment, while Simon and Schuster declined to comment.
Claude’s new watermark could give publishers, schools and universities another tool to investigate similar cases, making it harder for AI-generated writing to be presented as entirely human-authored.
Anthropic acknowledged limitations to the system. The company said heavy editing, paraphrasing, translation, or mixing Claude’s output with other writing can render the watermark undetectable. It also noted that detecting a watermark does not necessarily prove Claude originally authored a piece of text, since even light uses of the AI, such as proofreading or translation, can leave a trace.
Anthropic is the second major AI company to introduce watermarking for text. In 2024, Google DeepMind announced it was watermarking text and video generated through the Gemini app and web interface using its SynthID technology. DeepMind had previously introduced an image-based version of the tool in 2023.
The relationship between work and AI continues to evolve. Breitbart News social media director Wynton Hall has written his instant bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI to serve as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that benefit humanity without handing control of our nation to the leftists of Silicon Valley or allowing the Chinese to take over the world.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.
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