Earlier this week, a picture started circulating that looked like Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell in a hospital bed, covered in tubes, looking rough. It went viral on Reddit and X. People assumed the worst.
Turns out it was AI-generated. And the thing that gave it away? Google’s SynthID watermark.
Snopes picked it up and ran the image through SynthID’s detection. The invisible signature came back positive — confirming the image was made by an AI model, not a camera.
This is exactly the use case SynthID was designed for. Launched at Google I/O in 2025, it embeds an invisible, tamper-resistant watermark directly into AI-generated images. The signature survives screenshots, re-uploads, and cross-platform sharing — exactly what happened here.
The catch? It only works when the image-generation tool that created the image participates in the program. Gemini models have included it since 2025. OpenAI joined in May 2026. Anthropic doesn’t participate.
McConnell’s health has been a topic of intense speculation since he was hospitalized after an emergency call on June 14. He’s been largely absent from public view since. That made the fake image especially believable — and especially damaging.
Users can check images themselves by asking a Gemini model or using OpenAI’s public verification tool. The watermark works. The question is how many people will actually use it before sharing.
