Secure and Robust Watermarking for AI-generated Images: A Comprehensive Survey

Abstract

The rapid progress of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has enabled the effortless synthesis of high-quality visual content, while simultaneously raising pressing concerns about intellectual property protection, authenticity, and accountability. Among various countermeasures, watermarking has emerged as a fundamental mechanism for tracing provenance, distinguishing AI-generated images from natural content, and supporting trustworthy digital ecosystems. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of AI-generated image watermarking, systematically reviewing the field from five perspectives: (1) the formalization and fundamental components of image watermarking systems; (2) existing watermarking methodologies and their comparative characteristics; (3) evaluation metrics in terms of visual fidelity, embedding capacity, and detectability; (4) known vulnerabilities under malicious attacks and recent advances in secure and robust watermarking designs; and (5) open challenges, emerging trends, and future research directions. The survey seeks to offer researchers a holistic understanding of watermarking technologies for AI-generated images and to facilitate their continued advancement toward secure and responsible AI-generated content practices.