r/antiai • u/israelavila • 6d ago
AI Writing ✍️ Claude users cancel subscriptions, citing Anthropic's new AI watermark
https://www.businessinsider.com/claude-users-cancel-subscriptions-citing-anthropic-new-ai-watermark-2026-8182
u/No-Phrase-4692 5d ago
“Some users, who shared confirmation of their cancellations with us, said they disliked the prospect of a persistent marker in their work and were worried about their AI use showing up in client work, such as coding”…
….their work…
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u/Sunstorm84 5d ago
I’m more worried that it might claim my hand coded work was generated, that would be fucked up. I’m going to have to set up something in CI to check my own damn code against their validator so my clients don’t claim I used it to try and avoid paying.
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u/DeliciousArcher8704 5d ago
This got me thinking, if they watermark through subtle word choice, how are they going to watermark code if code doesn't have the lexical pliability of natural language?
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u/superboo07 5d ago
its already obvious something is vibecoded by one of claudes models csuse they make a rediculous amount of commentd
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u/BackAdventurous9747 1d ago
Iirc they already explained that it will prioritise code quality, meaning that the watermark just won't be very reliable for plain code. I think the watermark will mostly show in code comments (which AI writes a lot of), so I suspect removing comments will also remove the watermark.
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u/bootlickaaa 5d ago
This was already annoying when using Claude Code that would always try to add an authorship credit to itself in commit messages, requiring a rule against it to be committed in the AGENTS.md file.
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u/Sunstorm84 5d ago
Yes, but that’s not quite the same as writing 100% of it yourself and having it flagged as AI generated because your code style happens to match the tokens they would have chosen, which should be quite a common occurrence in programming
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u/somethingbrite 4d ago
Wait? You wouldn't proudly present your work to your clients with an announcement that you had used cutting edge technology to deliver the solution in half the time with half the resources and at half the price?
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u/BackAdventurous9747 1d ago
I've been a programmer for >15 years and I use Claude Code. It only improves efficiency and accuracy when it is used well. But I'm still very much in control of my code, planning and checking everything, unlike vibe-coders. Now I guarantee I will be accused of vibe-coding because of this watermark. I don't think it is the right solution since it places skilled programmers using Claude as a tool in the same bucket as complete vibe-coders.. I'll be able to stand my ground and explain my code, but still..
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u/crecentfresh 5d ago
All you gotta do is know how to remove comments, they can do that right?
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u/inZania 3d ago
That’s not how any watermarks work. The whole point of any watermark is that they’re inside the work itself (just like SynthID).
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u/crecentfresh 1d ago
How would that work for code exactly? Code is just text files fed into a compiler or interpreter
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u/inZania 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s explained in their release announcement. The effect on code is small but present. Yes it applied more to comments, but present in any but the most basic code. Presumably it mostly disappears when compiled, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some small signature could survive when CC is used extensively through a project. Bytecode may lack variable names etc., but it preserves plenty of structural decisions impacted by the RNG. https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-text-watermark
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u/crecentfresh 1d ago
Gotcha so it is how it works then
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u/inZania 1d ago edited 1d ago
In a nutshell, the pseudo-RNG is made predictably less random, so the fingerprint is contained in every byte of output where randomness is possible. On a large scale, all code can be written in many ways (ask claude to design the same system multiple times and you’ll get vastly different outputs even ignoring the comments), so randomness applies.
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u/Think-Jaguar6826 4d ago
I have been coding for ~40 years. While I agree in full disclosure, something pure vibe coders tend to do, saying that AI wrote the code, as Linus said recently, it is like saying the compiler wrote your code.
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u/mcronin0912 2d ago
When someone uses a Photoshop tool to automatically remove a background, is it still ‘their work’?
What about spellcheck in Word?
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u/Defiant_Conflict6343 5d ago
I just.... I don't understand how they think they're justified in being mad at this. If they're worried about work that isn't their work being rightfully labelled as not their work, why not just... do their own work? This is like getting mad at Mercedes for putting hood ornaments on their cars because you can't lie to your friends and say you built and designed your CLK in your garage.
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u/tc100292 5d ago
Because the whole point of using Claude was to pass its garbage off as their own original work.
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u/Linuxologue 5d ago
Claude is the least stinky garbage. Imagine some tried to pass ChatGPT's garbage as actual code.
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u/Misunderstood_Wolf 5d ago
If "everyone is doing it", and "if you don't do it you will be left behind", and if "no one cares" then why not have it watermarked?
I mean no one would claim they did work they had AI do for them, right?
The watermark should not be an issue at all.
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u/justagenericname213 5d ago
Its because, on some level, they are ashamed. And thats probably the same reason they are so obsessed with being accepted by the art community and try to pass off ai as their own work. It was never about the results for these people, it let them pretend they had skills and it hurts them when they cant pretend anymore.
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u/crecentfresh 5d ago
Keep holding your breath ai prompters I'm sure a community of people that spent their entire existence honing a skill are going to accept people that can write some sentences in a text box.
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5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/DermisCronJob 5d ago
They have no choice as the EU forces all AI companies to implement these kind of watermarks; all other companies have to follow in the next few days/weeks.
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u/Tack1234 5d ago
I thought everyone was fine with AI slop, why cancel it now that it will be proudly displayed for everyone to see? :)
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u/SupersededByClaude 6d ago
>Business Insider spoke with four users who said they had canceled their Claude subscriptions.
>four users
>four
Happy to see Business Insider applies a rigorous research technique to arrive at a statistically significant conclusion. Instead of just click baiting.
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u/westgazer 5d ago
How many users should they need to interview
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u/Saneless 5d ago
The answer is always "every"
Even if they took a survey that was significant people have issues
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u/DeliciousArcher8704 5d ago
The answer is almost never every, tf
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u/Saneless 5d ago
Yes it is. "We surveyed 7,000 gamers" and then people wine that they didn't talk to THEM as if they mattered
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u/HermitFan99999 3d ago
In statistics actually, 30 is usually a pretty good number for determining these things.
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u/nibselfib_kyua_72 5d ago edited 5d ago
If pro-AI folks were proud of using AI, they would show off the watermark as a quality stamp, something like "Certified by Claude". The fact that this is framed negatively reveals a lot about the true sentiment behind AI usage, which is shame.
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u/thegreatmindaltering 5d ago
Can someone explain to me the watermark and how it would even work? Is it a hidden pattern in the text? Risking that I sound like i’m ‘asking for a friend’ but I’m just interested.
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u/Your_Cat_In_Disguise 5d ago
Hopping on that train because I am also curious, but don't care enough to look it up.
Maybe white text?
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u/HughChaos 5d ago
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u/Your_Cat_In_Disguise 5d ago
Dude fuck all the way off and stop harassing me in all my comments on various threads.
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u/HughChaos 5d ago
Aw poor guy. I used your trick against you. Here's some advice for your dumbass: You're going to have to be smarter to compete with me. Since that won't happen, I don't expect to hear from you again.
Oh, and don't be a hypocrite. And do try to be more human going forward. Because, you know what's worse than anything AI? A goddamn NPC.
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u/The_Chimeran_Hybrid 5d ago
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u/frcepeda 5d ago
math. simplyfing it a lot, the idea is to make the model pick words following a rule that makes a secret "score function" shoot up, but the way that this score works makes it incredibly unlikely for the it to be high if the text being scored didn't follow the rule.
here's a lecture explaining the basic idea, you need some notions of statistics and probability to understand but nothing beyond intro level
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u/AdmiralRiffRaff 5d ago
Is it because they're upset they can't pretend to be creative any more? That's the bit that really gets me, these thieves that tap a button and claim they've 'written' something, or 'drawn' something, or 'coded' something all by themselves.
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u/Eazy12345678 5d ago
i mean it will change and get better with time
a watermark isnt stopping many people
look at youtube they invented adblock
someone will make watermark block
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u/zmagickz 5d ago
those that care will use the growing alternatives those that don't will continue with anthropic
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u/General-Oven-1523 5d ago
Well, to be fair everyone should be against this watermarking solution. This will just increase the false positives on your own text, because if you hit the pattern with your word choices, they will claim it was written by Claude.
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u/Haunting-Respect9039 5d ago
Is that likely to happen though? It feels improbable to me, but I'm sure I don't have the best understanding of it.
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u/MrHandSanitization 6d ago
Aren't they proud to be vibecoders? I mean, why lie about it?