TIME names Google DeepMind's SynthID a Best Invention of 2026

TIME has named Google DeepMind's SynthID to its 2026 Best Inventions list, according to Google DeepMind on X and in a post on The Keyword.

SynthID is a watermarking system that embeds an invisible mark into AI-generated images, audio, video and text at creation. Google says it has watermarked more than 180 billion images and videos and 240,000 years of audio.

Google says verification tools are built into Google Search, the Gemini app and Chrome, and that the SynthID Detector checks content from Google and its partners. Google says the watermarks help people tell AI-generated content apart from other media. The reports do not describe how TIME selected the invention.