Why can't anyone detect AI?

​An ai-generated collage of a woman's face with a magnifying glass.

An ai-generated collage of a woman's face with a magnifying glass.

Reuters

The irony of the AI boom is that it offers really good generative AI creation tools but terrible AI detection tools.

Last week, Meta and Google each announced renewed efforts to invest in AI detection. Meta called for a cross-industry effort to label AI-generated content while pledging to start labeling user-posted content featuring generative AI. Then, Google said it’s working on creating a sort of “nutrition label” for generative AI. Meanwhile, OpenAI announced it’s going to add watermarks to its text-to-image model DALL-E. All three companies are involved with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, an Adobe-led working group that’s developing common labeling standards.

These efforts are primarily focused on photos, video, or audio, rather than text. ChatGPT maker OpenAI has been open about the possibly insurmountable problem of identifying AI-generated text — even its own tools have proved faulty. (Sorry, teachers.)

While the US government is slow to pass new laws on AI, American lawmakers urged tech companies such as Meta and Google to prevent the spread of misleading AI content on their platforms while the Biden administration tasked the Commerce Department to develop its own standards for watermarking AI photos and videos.

More from GZERO Media

Japanese Prime Minister and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba is surrounded by security policemen as he meets with his supporters after he delivered a campaign speech for his party's candidate Masaaki Waki for the Upper House election in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo, Japan, on July 18, 2025.
Yoshio Tsunoda/AFLO

Less than a year after losing its majority in the lower chamber, the Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition government faces another test during the Upper House elections this Sunday.

Members of Syrian security forces ride on a back of a truck after Syrian troops entered the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria July 15, 2025.
REUTERS

Deadly sectarian violence in Syria escalates, leaving over 350 dead. Tensions between Sunni Arabs, Druze, Alawites, Kurds, and Christians threaten post-war stability.

The number of people newly eligible to vote in the next election because of the decision to lower the voting age to 16.
Riley Callanan

In a move meant in part to boost sagging voter turnout, the UK government has lowered the voting age from 18 to 16 for the next round of national elections.