Anthropic's new Claude watermarks spark backlash from some users

Anthropic has started inserting invisible code into text generated by its Claude chatbot, marking the content as AI-generated in a way that computer systems can detect. The change was made to comply with the European Union's AI Act Transparency Code, which requires technology companies to label content that has been created or edited by AI in a machine-identifiable way.

While the policy satisfies European regulators, it has drawn criticism from a portion of Claude's user base. On Reddit, several users have voiced discontent with the new system. One vocal critic, whose account is only a few weeks old, argued that the watermarking unfairly targets ordinary users — such as students asking Claude to reorganize a paragraph, or journalists asking it to summarize a lengthy transcript — rather than those who deliberately try to disguise AI-generated content.

Other commenters pushed back, noting that if AI-generated text is being copied directly into finished work without disclosure, that itself raises ethical concerns. Another critic called the watermarking "unethical," arguing that they had done the bulk of the creative work themselves and that Claude merely served as a tool. Other Reddit users disputed this framing, explaining that the watermark isn't about assigning credit but about enabling detection of AI-generated content given the risks it can pose in different contexts.

Accusations of hypocrisy

A few critics raised more nuanced objections, pointing to what they see as an irony: a company watermarking its own AI-generated output despite having trained its models on large amounts of other people's work scraped from the internet.

Despite the pushback, many commenters expressed support for the watermarking system, describing it as a reasonable way to track algorithmically generated content and suggesting that objecting to it mainly serves those who want to conceal AI use from others.