Microsoft Paint and Photos Embed Server-Issued GUIDs as Invisible Watermarks in Locally-Generated Images

TL;DR

  • Microsoft Paint supports both local and cloud image generation
  • Paint and Photos also ship local AI models
  • The two apps send the prompt to a remote server for moderation
  • The server returns a GUID along with the moderated prompt
  • The GUID is embedded into the locally generated image as an invisible watermark
  • A separate visible-watermark setting does not control this invisible watermark
  • On Copilot+ PCs, image generation is local but prompt moderation remains remote
  • Microsoft discloses that Paint adds C2PA metadata to AI-generated images
  • AI-generated image saves limited to C2PA-preserving formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF, and .paint
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