Samsung executives defend watermarking as deepfake concerns grow

On Thursday morning, I attended a Q&A panel with four top Samsung smartphone executives where reporters pressed the company on AI-generated images and rising deepfake concerns. Samsung told the room it has begun adding a watermark to AI-generated pictures as a technical and policy response, but the move was described in the session as a stopgap that may be easily defeated.

An image file included in reporting from the event bears the name 268373_Samsung_Galaxy_Unpacked_Feb_2026_AJohnson_0007, and journalists at the session also pointed to three screenshots taken from AI-generated Samsung ads on YouTube as evidence that the company’s use of synthetic imagery is already public-facing. KTLA-TV tech reporter Rich DeMuro asked whether Samsung might want to make it easier for customers to remove the company’s AI watermark from AI-generated photos, a line of questioning that underscored a basic tension: who should control alteration and attribution of images made on phones that billions own.

Onstage, one executive identified only by the surname Das described Samsung’s public posture as a search for balance. “We’re trying to discern what is the right place to use it, and absolutely how to be very clear about when we are using AI generated content vs naturally generated content,” Das said. He added that “it really boils down to giving the creator choice,” suggesting that the company sees its role as enabling creativity while finding “the right balance.”

Other executives framed the issue as industry-wide and worthy of a broader conversation, and an unnamed panelist suggested that societal feelings toward AI-generated content might become more favorable in the future. That collective positioning shifted responsibility from any single company to the market, regulators and standards bodies rather than committing Samsung to immediate, enforceable safeguards.

Those answers drew skeptical responses in the room. Reporters noted that while Samsung’s watermark is a visible policy step, it can be stripped or altered; in the panel’s coverage the watermark was described plainly as “a watermark that can easily be removed.” The practical consequence is that provenance markers placed on images by manufacturers may offer limited protection against misuse if they are not cryptographically anchored or supported by industry-wide provenance systems.

The exchange also occurred against a clear market backdrop. Until 2025 Samsung was the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, and by association a leading maker of cameras; the company remains the second largest after Apple. That scale gives Samsung outsized influence over what tools and defaults consumers encounter in everyday photography and social sharing, and it raises stakes for how the firm chooses to govern AI features in devices carried by hundreds of millions of people.

The panel provided answers but left key questions open: which executives appeared on the panel and what are their full roles, how Samsung technically implements and secures its watermark, whether the company plans to strengthen provenance measures, and whether it will coordinate with peers or standards efforts to make markers more tamper-resistant. Samsung executives repeatedly emphasized creator choice and industry dialogue, but journalists at the session said that public-facing AI ads and removable marks make it unclear whether that approach will protect reality at scale.