Technologies

Google Says Gemini Will Now Be Able to Identify AI Images, but There’s a Big Catch

You can now ask Gemini if an image is made with Google’s AI.

Google’s betting invisible AI watermarks will be just as good as visible ones. The company is continuing its week of Gemini 3 news with an announcement that it’s bringing its AI content detector, SynthID detector, out of a private beta for everyone to use.

This news comes in tandem with the release of nano banana pro, Google’s ultrapopular AI image editor. The new pro model comes with a lot of upgrades, including the ability to create legible text and upscale your images to 4K. That’s great for creators who use AI, but it also means it will be harder than ever to identify AI-generated content.

We’ve had deepfakes since long before generative AI. But AI tools, like the ones Google and OpenAI develop, let anyone create convincing fake content quicker and cheaper than ever before. That’s led to a massive influx of AI content online, everything from low-quality AI slop to realistic-looking deepfakes. OpenAI’s viral AI video app, Sora, was another major tool that showed us how easily these AI tools can be abused. It’s not a new problem, but AI has led to a dramatic escalation of the deepfake crisis.

That’s why SynthID was created. Google introduced SynthID in 2023, and every AI model it has released since then has attached these invisible watermarks to AI content. Google adds a small, visible, sparkle-shaped watermark, too, but neither really help when you’re quickly scrolling your social media feed and not vigorously analyzing each post. To help prevent the deepfake crisis (that the company helped create) from getting worse, Google is introducing a new tool to use to identify AI content.

SynthID Detector does exactly what its name implies; it analyzes images and can pick up on the invisible SynthID watermark. So in theory, you can upload an image to Gemini and ask the chatbot whether it was created with AI. But there’s a huge catch — Gemini can only confirm if an image was made with Google’s AI, not any other company’s. Because there are so many AI image and video models available, that means Gemini likely isn’t able to tell you if it was AI-generated with a non-Google program.

Right now, you can only ask about images, but Google said in a blog post that it plans to expand the capabilities to video and audio. No matter how limited, tools like these are still a step in the right direction. There are a number of AI detection tools, but none of them are perfect. Generative media models are improving quickly, sometimes too quickly for detection tools to keep up. That’s why it’s incredibly important to label any AI content you’re sharing online and to remain dubious of any suspicious images or videos you see in your feeds.

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For more, check out everything in Gemini 3 and what’s new in nano banana pro.

Technologies

Apple Update Frees Families From Sharing Only 1 Payment Option

With the latest OS updates, Apple users on Family Sharing will be able to select their own payment options for new purchases.

Finally, a little financial flexibility is coming to Apple’s Family Sharing plan. Apple’s iOS 26.4 update won’t be available to all iPhone users until March 25, but the release notes include a welcome change. Members of a family group will no longer be bound to only one payment option.

An Apple representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

You can see the change in Apple’s new payment details. In the past, Family Sharing allowed you to add people to one group (up to six) so they could share their purchased content. But with that Purchase Sharing feature turned on, everyone in the group was required to use the single payment method chosen by the family organizer.

This caused many headaches. Family organizers rarely want to be asked for permission or to vet purchases for members they already trust. Some family members resorted to using Venmo to pay each other back, or to buying Apple gift cards and loading them into the account to pay that way.

iOS 26.4 is removing that hassle.

Soon, Adult family members can be part of Family Sharing and use the individual payment methods they have saved, perhaps to their Apple Wallet, without needing any workarounds.

Note that this applies only to adult members, so you can still monitor kids’ purchases.

The change to payment methods is just one of the changes Apple is bringing to iOS. Other updates include the ability to change your iPhone’s Liquid Glass design and to remove your alarm slider.

Technologies

Garmin Smartwatch Users Can Now Make Calls and Send Texts Through WhatsApp

If you own a Garmin smartwatch, you’ll now be able to keep up with your WhatsApp messages even while out on a run.

If you own a Garmin smartwatch, you can now send texts and make calls via WhatsApp. Garmin announced on Tuesday that WhatsApp is now available for free download from its Connect IQ store. The Meta-owned app will be available for select Garmin Fenix, Forerunner, Venus and Vívoactive smartwatches. This integration makes WhatsApp the only third-party messaging app available on Garmin smartwatches.

Garmin is one of CNET’s leading makers of fitness trackers among runners and for sleep tracking. CNET recently tested a group of smartwatches to see which is the most accurate, and the Garmin Venu 4 earned the top honor for elite-level heart rate tracking on Android phones.

«By bringing a global messaging brand like WhatsApp to select Garmin smartwatches, we’re giving customers another meaningful way to stay connected — whether they’re training, exploring or simply on the move,» Susan Lyman, Garmin’s vice president of consumer sales and marketing, said in a statement.

Garmin smartwatch users will be able to read and respond to messages with the built-in keyboard on their watch screens, view incoming calls and accept or decline them, and view their chat history up to 10 messages.

The Kansas-based company uses end-to-end encryption to protect messages shared through the device.

Technologies

Tim Cook Riffs on Retirement Rumors, AI, Phone Addiction and Trump

The Apple CEO discussed a range of topics on Good Morning America.

Tim Cook isn’t going anywhere just yet — not during Apple’s 50th anniversary celebrations, not with the company preparing to introduce its first foldable phone, not while the tech giant is trying to figure out how to beat the AI race.

In a sit-down interview with Good Morning America host and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan this week, Cook, who turned 65 in November, said there was no truth to the rumors that he is considering retiring from Apple. He became CEO of the company in 2011, 13 years after joining from Compaq.

«I love what I do deeply. Twenty-eight years ago, I walked into Apple, and I’ve loved every day of it since,» Cook told Strahan. «We’ve had ups and downs, but the people I work with are so amazing. They bring out the best in me, and hopefully I can bring out the best in them.»

Strahan interviewed Cook during the Apple CEO’s visit to Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Harlem, where students use Apple technology through the company’s partnership with the nonprofit Save the Music.

Speculation about Cook stepping down has been circulating since last November, when the Financial Times cited unnamed sources saying that Apple was preparing to usher in a new CEO «as soon as next year.» Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman threw water on that report, saying he «would be shocked if Cook steps down in the time frame outlined by the FT.»

During Cook’s tenure as CEO, Apple’s revenue has nearly quadrupled, with the tech giant adding dozens of new iPhone models, several more iPads, and updated Apple Watches and AirPods. This year, Apple has launched several new products, including the MacBook Neo, which at $599 has disrupted the budget laptop market. The company’s first foldable phone could come later this year.

Touch some grass

The GMA interview was short but wide-ranging, including Cook’s thoughts on how much people use their iPhones. Many studies estimate that people across most generations spend at least 4 hours a day on their phones, with millennials and Gen Z spending 5 to 6 hours.

When asked what he worries about most regarding Apple products’ impact on society, Cook weighed in, telling Strahan he doesn’t want people using iPhones «too much.»

«I don’t want people looking at the smartphone more than they’re looking in someone’s eyes,» Cook said, «because if they’re just scrolling endlessly, this is not the way you want to spend your day. Go out and spend it in nature.»

More on Apple from CNET:

AI and privacy

Cook told Strahan that AI «can be so positive,» but his response when asked whether he was «worried» about it was fairly flat.

«Technology doesn’t want to be good, and it doesn’t want to be bad,» Cook said. «It’s in the hands of the user and the hands of the inventor.»

Strahan questioned how much of iPhone users’ private lives are feeding Apple’s AI learning machine. Cook told him that because the smartphone is encrypted, Apple doesn’t have access to it. He went on to say: «When we can’t answer a question on your device, we send it to something called private cloud compute, which is essentially a big device in the sky that has the same kind of security and architecture as your phone.»

On its website, Apple says that it «does not use our users’ private personal data or user interactions when training our foundation models.»

To date, Apple has been cautious in diving into the AI scrum. While Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are spending nearly $700 billion combined on AI tech this year, Apple is «only» investing $14 billion.

Trump and tariffs

Cook has been criticized for being too cozy with the Trump administration: donating $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration; giving him a 24-karat gold plaque; and attending a White House screening of Melania, a film about the First Lady.

The Apple CEO told Strahan that he’s «not a political person» on either side.

«I’m kind of straight down the middle, and I focus on policy,» Cook said. «So, I’m very pleased that the president and the administration is accessible to talk about policy.»

One of those policies has been tariffs, which Trump has imposed on many nations to varying degrees during his second term in office, purportedly to pressure companies to shift their manufacturing to the US. The president has largely spared Apple, which promised to invest $600 billion over four years to make more products in the US.

Cook told Strahan that the glass for the front and back of an iPhone will come out of Kentucky by the end of the year, and that 100 million chip engines will be manufactured in Arizona this year. He also noted that 20 billion semiconductors will be made in the US. «We’re a very proud American company, and we want to do as much here as we can,» Cook said.