A video of Elizabeth Warren saying Republicans shouldn’t vote went viral in 2023. But it wasn’t Warren. That video of Ron DeSantis wasn’t the Florida governor, either. And nope, Pope Francis was not wearing a white Balenciaga coat.
Technology
Watermarking the future
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25277387/246992_AI_at_Work_WATERMARKING_ECarter.jpg?ssl=1 "Watermarking the future")
Generative AI has made it easier to create deepfakes and spread them around the internet. One of the most common proposed solutions involves the idea of a watermark that would identify AI-generated content. The Biden administration has made a big deal out of watermarks as a policy solution, even specifically mandating tech companies to find ways to identify AI-generated content. The president’s executive order on AI, released in November, was built on commitments from AI developers to figure out a way to tag content as AI generated. And it’s not just coming from the White House — legislators, too, are looking at enshrining watermarking requirements as law.
Watermarking can’t be a panacea — for one thing, most systems simply don’t have the capacity to tag text the way it can tag visual media. Still, people are familiar enough with watermarks that the idea of watermarking an AI-generated image feels natural.
Pretty much everyone has seen a watermarked image. Getty Images, which distributes licensed photos taken at events, uses a watermark so ubiquitous and so recognizable that it is its own meta-meme. (In fact, the watermark is now the basis of Getty’s lawsuit against the AI-generation platform Midjourney, with Getty alleging that Midjourney must have taken its copyrighted content since it generates the Getty watermark in its output.) Of course, artists were signing their works long before digital media or even the rise of photography, in order to let people know who created the painting. But watermarking itself — according to A History of Graphic Design — began during the Middle Ages, when monks would change the thickness of the printing paper while it was wet and add their own mark. Digital watermarking rose in the ‘90s as digital content grew in popularity. Companies and governments began putting tags (hidden or otherwise) to make it easier to track ownership, copyright, and authenticity.
Watermarks will, as before, still denote who owns and created the media that people are looking at. But as a policy solution for the problem of deepfakes, this new wave of watermarks would, in essence, tag content as either AI or human generated. Adequate tagging from AI developers would, in theory, also show the provenance of AI-generated content, thus additionally addressing the question of whether copyrighted material was used in its creation.
Tech companies have taken the Biden directive and are slowly releasing their AI watermarking solutions. Watermarking may seem simple, but it has one significant weakness: a watermark pasted on top of an image or video can be easily removed via photo or video editing. The challenge becomes, then, to make a watermark that Photoshop cannot erase.
The challenge becomes, then, to make a watermark that Photoshop cannot erase.
Companies like Adobe and Microsoft — members of the industry group Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, or C2PA — have adopted Content Credentials, a standard that adds features to images and videos of its provenance. Adobe has created a symbol for Content Credentials that gets embedded in the media; Microsoft has its own version as well. Content Credentials embeds certain metadata — like who made the image and what program was used to create it — into the media; ideally, people will be able to click or tap on the symbol to look at that metadata themselves. (Whether this symbol can consistently survive photo editing is yet to be proven.)
Meanwhile, Google has said it’s currently working on what it calls SynthID, a watermark that embeds itself into the pixels of an image. SynthID is invisible to the human eye, but still detectable via a tool. Digimarc, a software company that specializes in digital watermarking, also has its own AI watermarking feature; it adds a machine-readable symbol to an image that stores copyright and ownership information in its metadata.
All of these attempts at watermarking look to either make the watermark unnoticable by the human eye or punt the hard work over to machine-readable metadata. It’s no wonder: this approach is the most surefire way information can be stored without it being removed, and encourages people to look closer at the image’s provenance.
That’s all well and good if what you’re trying to build is a copyright detection system, but what does that mean for deepfakes, where the problem is that fallible human eyes are being deceived? Watermarking puts the burden on the consumer, relying on an individual’s sense that something isn’t right for information. But people generally do not make it a habit to check the provenance of anything they see online. Even if a deepfake is tagged with telltale metadata, people will still fall for it — we’ve seen countless times that when information gets fact-checked online, many people still refuse to believe the fact-checked information.
Experts feel a content tag is not enough to prevent disinformation from reaching consumers, so why would watermarking work against deepfakes?
The best thing you can say about watermarks, it seems, is that at least it’s anything at all. And due to the sheer scale of how much AI-generated content can be quickly and easily produced, a little friction goes a long way.
After all, there’s nothing wrong with the basic idea of watermarking. Visible watermarks signal authenticity and may encourage people to be more skeptical of media without it. And if a viewer does find themselves curious about authenticity, watermarks directly provide that information.
The best thing you can say about watermarks, it seems, is that at least it’s anything at all.
Watermarking can’t be a perfect solution for the reasons I’ve listed (and besides that, researchers have been able to break many of the watermarking systems out there). But it works in tandem with a growing wave of skepticism toward what people see online. I have to confess when I began writing this, I’d believed that it’s easy to fool people into believing really good DALL-E 3 or Midjourney photos were made by humans. However, I realized that discourse around AI art and deepfakes has seeped into the consciousness of many chronically online people. Instead of accepting magazine covers or Instagram posts as authentic, there’s now an undercurrent of doubt. Social media users regularly investigate and call out brands when they use AI. Look at how quickly internet sleuths called out the opening credits of Secret Invasion and the AI-generated posters in True Detective.
It’s still not an excellent strategy to rely on a person’s skepticism, curiosity, or willingness to find out if something is AI-generated. Watermarks can do good, but there has to be something better. People are more dubious of content, but we’re not fully there yet. Someday, we might find a solution that conveys something is made by AI without hoping the viewer wants to find out if it is.
For now, it’s best to learn to recognize if a video isn’t really of a politician.
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As if there weren’t already enough devices listening in on everything being said in your home, Prego, the pasta and pizza sauce brand, is releasing a device designed to record everything said around the dinner table for posterity. The Connection Keeper, which looks like an oversized pasta jar lid, was created in collaboration with StoryCorps, the nonprofit organization focused on preserving the stories of Americans in a collection housed at the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center. There’s no AI, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth, but you can optionally upload recordings to StoryCorps’ website to make them easier to share with family.
Prego says the goal of the device is to encourage families to make memories through conversation during dinner instead of staring at their phones — but only for a small number of families. The company is only planning to make less than 100 of them. The Connection Keeper will be available for purchase online starting on April 27th for $20 as part of a bundle that includes the device, a jar of Prego sauce, spaghetti noodles, and a deck of cards featuring conversation prompts and ideas.
Using the device is as easy as plopping the Connection Keeper down in the middle of everyone at the table and pressing one button to start recording. Using a pair of microphones, it captures CD-quality audio to a 16GB microSD card for up to eight hours when fully charged.
When dinner’s over, the recordings can be transferred to a computer over USB-C and then uploaded to a dedicated microsite created by StoryCorps where they’re preserved and accessible only by the uploader, unless they choose to share them with other StoryCorps users or the general public. You even have the option to archive them within the Library of Congress, which makes them public automatically, so hopefully your family talks about more than just stealing brainrots.
The recordings can be accessed on a smartphone through the StoryCorps app, but Prego intentionally left phones out of the rest of the process to discourage their use at the table. It’s also why the Connection Keeper lacks a screen. The goal was to minimize interactions with the device so family members instead focused on talking with each other.
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BMW Group has spent years testing automation, but this latest move feels different. Instead of robotic arms locked in cages, the company is now using humanoid robots that move through factories more like people. After a successful pilot in Spartanburg, South Carolina, BMW is bringing that same idea into its Leipzig, Germany, factory, where it is testing robots in real production environments. This time, it is partnering with Hexagon Robotics to introduce a new generation of AI-powered machines. Unlike many robot demos you see online, this one is already being tested inside a real production environment.
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CHINESE ROBOT BREAKS HUMAN WORLD RECORD IN BEIJING HALF-MARATHON
BMW’s new AI-driven robots are now operating inside active factories, marking a shift from traditional automation to flexible, human-like systems. (Christof Rührmair/picture alliance via Getty Images)
How BMW’s humanoid robot pilot built over 30,000 vehicles
BMW’s earlier pilot used Figure 02 humanoid robots for a very specific task. They handled the precise positioning of sheet metal for welding on the BMW X3 production line. That task may seem small, but it plays a key role in keeping production moving smoothly. Precision work like this can easily slow things down or create bottlenecks. According to BMW, those robots helped contribute to building more than 30,000 vehicles. Because of that success, the company now feels confident about expanding the concept. Instead of limiting testing to one plant, BMW is moving forward with its iFACTORY initiative in Leipzig, where EV production is already a major focus.
BMW’s new AI humanoid robots for EV factories
The new robots, called AEON, come from Hexagon Robotics. They are designed to work inside active factory environments without constant human direction. They rely on AI-based motion control, which helps them move through complex spaces. At the same time, built-in sensors allow them to understand their surroundings in real time. Because of that, they can adjust their actions on the fly instead of following fixed instructions. Hexagon refers to this as “Physical AI.” In simple terms, the robot can make decisions based on what it sees around it. As a result, the robot does not stop when something unexpected happens. Instead, it adapts and keeps working. That marks a clear shift from traditional factory automation.
Why BMW is investing in humanoid robots now
BMW executives have made it clear that this is not about replacing people overnight. Instead, the goal is to test what actually works in real production environments. Michael Nikolaides, who oversees BMW’s production network, says these pilot programs help the company refine how AI-powered robots learn on the job. He goes on to point to a broader vision, saying: “Digitalization improves the competitiveness of our production, here in Europe and worldwide. The symbiosis of engineering expertise and artificial intelligence opens up entirely new possibilities in production.” There is also a practical reason for the humanoid design. Factories are already built for human workers. Because of that, a robot that can use the same spaces and tools is much easier to integrate than one that requires a complete redesign.
HUMANOID ROBOTS HIT MASS PRODUCTION IN CHINA
After a successful U.S. pilot, BMW is deploying humanoid robots in Leipzig to improve efficiency and adaptability in electric vehicle manufacturing. (Christof Rührmair/picture alliance via Getty Images)
How humanoid robots could transform factory work
For years, humanoid robots felt more like something you saw in those social media demo videos than something you would trust on a real factory floor. Yes, they looked impressive, but they struggled in real environments. That is starting to change. Factories are still unpredictable. Parts do not always arrive in the exact same position. Workers move around constantly, and tools and materials shift throughout the day. Because of this, traditional robots often struggle since they rely on tightly controlled conditions. AI-powered humanoid robots can handle that kind of variability. They move around people and equipment without stopping. They adjust when parts are slightly off, and they work in spaces built for human workers. That level of flexibility is what sets this new wave of AI-powered robotics apart from earlier forms of automation.
What this means to you
Even if you never step inside a factory, this shift still matters. For one, it could change how cars are built, whether they are electric or gas. When production speeds up, costs can come down over time, which could affect what you pay for your next vehicle. At the same time, factory jobs are likely to change. Some repetitive or physically demanding work may move to robots. In many cases, that means people shift into roles focused on oversight, maintenance or more skilled tasks. Step back for a second, and you can see this is a sign of where AI is headed next. It is no longer limited to apps on your phone or software on your computer. Now, it is starting to show up in the physical world in ways you can actually see and interact with.
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BMW is expanding its humanoid robot program into a German EV factory, testing AI-powered machines designed to work alongside humans in real production environments. (Christof Rührmair/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Kurt’s key takeaways
BMW is not the only company testing humanoid robots, but it is one of the first to bring them into real production environments. That is a big shift from the testing phase most of us are used to seeing. The fact that these robots are already helping build tens of thousands of vehicles shows that this is moving beyond early trials. It is starting to become part of how factories actually run. Where this goes next is still an open question. If the technology keeps improving, you could see more of these robots show up in factories and warehouses over time.
So here is the bigger question. How do you feel about humanoid robots working alongside people in factories? Would you trust them to help build the car you drive? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com
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Today’s launch of AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite aboard Blue Origin’s reusable New Glenn rocket was a partial success. The New Glenn touched down on its landing pad without incident, making it the second launch and landing for the first stage booster, and officially giving Jeff Bezos a reusable launch vehicle. Unfortunately for AST SpaceMobile, the mission was less successful. Its cell-tower-in-space was delivered to a lower orbit than expected by the second stage of the launch vehicle, rendering it functionally useless.
While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will de-orbited.
Bezos, for his part, posted a video of the landing on X without comment.
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