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Google Figures Out How to Watermark AI-Designed Proteins
The method could help DNA-screening software identify AI-designed proteins without changing their function, researchers said.
- On Wednesday, Google DeepMind researchers published a paper in Nature1 detailing SynthIDBio, a watermarking system that embeds hidden signatures into AI-designed proteins to reveal their machine-generated origins.
- AI-Designed tools like AlphaFold and RFdiffusion can create novel proteins that current biosecurity screens often miss because they lack counterparts in existing databases. This gap complicates threat identification.
- Computer scientist Pushmeet Kohli and his team at DeepMind 'stress-tested the approach on a number of challenging problems' to ensure the watermark remains effective without compromising protein function.
- DNA synthesis providers could use a secret detection key to identify watermarked proteins, aiding biosecurity screening. Tessa Alexanian, a biosecurity researcher, said 'Any information you can give us to make sense of these orders is good.'
- While watermarking supports innovation and security, it is not foolproof. Someone can run a watermarked protein through another design tool and generate a new sequence that obscures its synthetic origins.
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Secret watermark labels proteins as ‘made by AI’
Nature, Published online: 30 September 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03033-yAn innovative safeguard could help to flag proteins devised by artificial-intelligence tools such as AlphaFold, but the digital marker can be erased.
·London, United Kingdom
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Google DeepMind introduced a labelling system for Synthetic Proteins developed by IE
A new, open-source tool that embeds digital watermarks into artificially produced DNA and proteins, enhancing global biosecurity without altering their functions.
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