Researchers create tool to remove anti-deepfake watermarks, point out systemic flaw in AI content

University of Waterloo researchers have built a tool that can quickly remove watermarks identifying content as artificially generated – and they say it proves that global efforts to combat deepfakes are most likely on the wrong track.

Academia and industry have focused on watermarking as the best way to fight deepfakes and “basically abandoned all other approaches,” said Andre Kassis, a PhD candidate in computer science who led the research.