AI Labels Are Big Tech's Most Basic Responsibility, Even Those Claude Watermarks - CNET

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AI Labels Are Big Tech’s Most Basic Responsibility, Even Those Claude Watermarks<br>Commentary: Anthropic’s upcoming Claude watermarks are forcing us to ask hard questions about how AI fits into our daily lives.

Katelyn Chedraoui<br>Reporter 2

Katelyn is a reporter with CNET covering artificial intelligence, including chatbots, image and video generators.… Read full bio

Katelyn Chedraoui

Reporter 2

Read full bio

August 20, 2026, 5:26 pm ET

5 min read

Claude-created text may soon come with an invisible label. Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto/Getty Images

I’ve been reporting on AI image and video generators, and the push for labels on AI-generated content, for years now. So I was pretty surprised when a recent announcement from Anthropic, saying it will begin watermarking AI-generated text and files, sparked outrage from some AI loyalists.

To be sure, Anthropic isn’t doing this out of the good of its corporate heart, or even to make you mad. It’s doing it because it’s legally mandated to in Europe, thanks to a newly enacted regulation. The Claude maker wants to avoid a legal headache and potential fine. Its solution is to add an invisible signature to text and files made by its chatbot that can, eventually, be decoded.

The backlash was swift. Some people reportedly started canceling their Claude subscriptions in a bizarre boycott. All for watermarks that we can’t even spot for ourselves yet.

It’s puzzling to me, particularly after years of seeing AI media become indistinguishable from real photos and videos, when labels and watermarks are largely seen as the most basic responsibility an AI company should take to avoid confusion. It leads me to ask: Why would anybody think, in this world of AI slop and deepfakes, that AI-created text ought to be excluded from transparency efforts?

I get it: Text feels different from images and videos. To a certain extent, it is. Having an AI tool polish up your grammar or draft an email reply doesn’t seem as consequential as using ChatGPT to create an entire event flier or Midjourney to generate a video clip. Text-based AI tools are also very often used in workplaces, where some employers are pushing hard for AI adoption.

But I’m sorry, if we want any transparency around AI, we have to hold the line. If you used AI, say so. If you don’t want people to know you used AI, you probably shouldn’t have used it in the first place.

Stop assuming everyone uses AI

Opposition to Claude watermarks seems to be partly coming from AI diehards. These people love AI; they use it all the time, and they think you do, too. Their argument against Claude watermarks is some version of, “I use AI constantly. I shouldn’t have to disclose it every single time.” In other words, they believe it should be assumed their work has some element of AI assistance.

It’s an understandable position, if only loosely tied to reality. Only 4% of US adults are using AI chatbots “constantly,” according to a June Pew Research Center report. Silicon Valley and AI leaders would certainly love it if we all adopted this attitude — that the AI they sell is becoming so essential to our work that it’s assumed we are constantly using it. And maybe in some industries, like software engineering, this is true. But even then, what is the harm of adding a line that says, “Refined with AI” or something similar?

The push for watermarks on AI-created images and videos has been a huge part of the conversation around AI in recent years, for good reason. It’s harder than ever to tell when a photo was captured with a camera by a photographer or generated by AI. Many (51%) of US adults want better labels on social media for AI-generated content, CNET found in February. Watermarking text is a natural next step.

Invisible labels on...