Categories
Archives
Google has added Digital Source Type support to Google Merchant Center, enabling images created by generative AI engines to be flagged as such in Google’s products such as Google search, maps, YouTube and Google Shopping.
In a new support post, Google reminds merchants who wish their products to be listed in Google search results and other products that they should not strip embedded metadata, particularly the Digital Source Type field which can be used to signal that content was created by generative AI.
We at the IPTC fully endorse this position. We have been saying for years that website publishers should not strip metadata from images. This should also include tools for maintaining online product inventories, such as Magento and WooCommerce. We welcome contact from developers who wish to learn more about how they can preserve metadata in their images.
Here’s the full text of Google’s recommendation:
![Preserving metadata tags for AI-generated images in Merchant Center
February 2024
If you’re using AI-generated images in Merchant Center, Google requires that you preserve any metadata tags which indicate that the image was created using generative AI in the original image file.
Don't remove embedded metadata tags such as trainedAlgorithmicMedia from such images. All AI-generated images must contain the IPTC DigitalSourceType trainedAlgorithmicMedia tag. Learn more about IPTC photo metadata.
These requirements apply to the following image attributes in Merchant Center Classic and Merchant Center Next:
Image link [image_link]
Additional image link [additional_image_link]
Lifestyle image link [lifestyle_image_link]
Learn more about product data specifications.](https://iptc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-09.56.52-1024x724.png)