Invisible Watermarks Decide Science Prizes

Automated provenance signals (like Google SynthID) are beginning to be used as de facto evidence in adjudicating scientific imagery and contest entries. That creates new procedural debates: how to interpret watermarks, who is the arbiter, and whether post‑processing assistance (colorization, denoising) violates norms even when it improves communicative clarity. — Establishing and adjudicating AI provenance standards will shape trust, publication rules, and the integrity of visual scientific evidence across journals, competitions, and universities.