OpenAI has been busy recently. New features, an agent mode and now, there could be a potentially controversial update on the horizon. According to Android Authority, ChatGPT could soon be watermarking your AI-generated images.
This was originally identified by X user Tibor Blaho, who spotted a mention of “image-gen-watermark-for-free” in a beta version of ChatGPT for Android.
Android Authority then followed this up with a report that the latest beta test version of the app includes a “save without watermark” option when generating images.
While it's not entirely clear what this feature will look like, or if it will come at all, it does appear that this will mean watermarked AI images, but only for those on the free version of ChatGPT.
When testing the feature, Android Authority highlighted that they were able to remove the watermark using the free version of ChatGPT. However, as this is still the beta version, it is likely that this will change when the feature comes to market.
Why would ChatGPT watermark images?
With the information currently available, it is hard to know exactly what OpenAI’s plan is here. It could end up being a watermark across all images, or more likely, a feature exclusively for free plans.
AI providers are quickly having to find ways to make up the costs going into the models. While this used to be funding for the most part, the financial model is slowly switching to subscription plans.
This means there needs to be enough benefits for users to go up to one of ChatGPT’s more expensive plans, leaving the free version behind. Having the ability to remove watermarks would be a major benefit to most users.
Currently, none of the other major AI image generators are watermarking their images, so this would be a controversial move for OpenAI. Alternatively, as ChatGPT still remains the biggest competitor out there, we could simply see other players following behind.
Are there any alternative image providers for free?
If ChatGPT does introduce watermarks on its free plan, some users will want to move elsewhere. These days, most of the best AI image generators are locked behind paywalls.
The likes of Midjourney and Gemini require you to pay a subscription to create images, as does major names like Freepik. There are a few places where you can do it for free, like Grok, but these are usually only available in limited numbers.
Realistically, AI image generation is slowly becoming a pay-to-use service. Or at least it will be if you want to avoid long wait times or limited numbers of image generations.
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