The Watermark Changes Nothing: AI Is Still a Tool,Not the Author Revisiting Generative AI: A Tool, Not a Shameful Shortcut in the age of AI provenance
In January 2025, I published an article titled Generative AI: A Tool, Not a Shameful Shortcut . My argument was straightforward: using generative AI to help articulate an idea should not automatically diminish the value of that idea. Writers have always worked with tools, editors, researchers, dictionaries, search engines, spell-checkers, designers and collaborators. Generative AI was becoming another member of that long list albeit a remarkably powerful one. A year and a half later, that argument is being tested in a way I did not fully anticipate. AI-generated content is beginning to acquire something resembling a digital fingerprint. Anthropic has introduced machine-readable marking for supported Claude-generated content as part of its response to the European Union’s new AI transparency requirements. New supported Claude models can embed an imperceptible watermark in generated text, while supported image and file outputs can carry digitally signed provenance ...