Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S26 phones will automatically label AI‑generated photos with a new on‑screen tag and metadata marker, in a bid to slow the spread of convincing deepfakes and other manipulated images.
What Samsung Is Adding
During its latest Galaxy Unpacked event, Samsung said that any image created or heavily modified with Galaxy AI tools on the S26 will be clearly labeled inside the Photos app.
The visible tag, shown in a lower corner, will flag the file as "AI‑generated content" so viewers can immediately see that it is synthetic or altered. Samsung is also a member of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), and AI images from the S26 will carry provenance information in their metadata to show how they were created.
How the Label Works
The AI tag appears when users generate or edit a picture with Galaxy AI features such as object insertion, scene expansion, or background replacement, rather than with standard camera shooting alone, according to Mashable.
In addition to the visible watermark‑style notice, C2PA‑style metadata can travel with the file when it is shared, giving social networks, newsrooms, and fact‑checkers a technical way to identify AI content. Industry groups say these layered signals are becoming best practice, combining human‑readable labels, standardized metadata, and resilient invisible markers.
Deepfakes and Regulation Backdrop
Samsung's move lands as regulators tighten rules on synthetic media and deepfakes worldwide. The EU's AI Act, for example, will require that AI‑generated or manipulated images, audio, and video be clearly labeled and technically detectable, with deepfake transparency rules beginning to apply from 2025 onward.
Lawmakers argue that visible disclosure plus machine‑readable identifiers are needed to protect voters, public figures, and ordinary users from deceptive content, identifai reported.
Questions and Limitations
Experts note that on‑screen labels alone can be removed by simple crops or edits, which is why persistent metadata and possible invisible watermarks are important for real‑world protection.
It is still unclear exactly which combination of standards Samsung will use long‑term on the S26, or how many third‑party apps will preserve or surface those tags once images leave Samsung's own gallery.
Even with these open questions, advocates see the S26's auto‑tagging as a meaningful step toward more honest AI imagery on mainstream phones, and a sign that smartphone makers are starting to treat deepfake risks as a core product issue rather than an afterthought, as per Peta Pixel.
ⓒ 2026 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
