Latent Diffusion Models for Image Watermarking: A Review of Recent Trends and Future Directions

Recent advancements in deep learning-based generative models have simplified image generation, increasing the need for improved source tracing and copyright protection, especially with the efficient, high-quality output of latent diffusion models (LDMs) raising concerns about unauthorized use. This paper provides a comprehensive review of watermarking techniques applied to latent diffusion models, focusing on recent trends and the potential utility of these approaches. Watermarking using latent diffusion models offers the potential to overcome these limitations by embedding watermarks in the latent space during the image generation process. This represents a new paradigm of watermarking that leverages a degree of freedom unavailable in traditional watermarking techniques and underscores the need to explore the potential advancements in watermark technology. LDM-based watermarking allows for the natural internalization of watermarks within the content generation process, enabling robust watermarking without compromising image quality. We categorize the methods based on embedding strategies and analyze their effectiveness in achieving key functionalities-source tracing, copyright protection, and AI-generated content identification. The review highlights the strengths and limitations of current techniques and discusses future directions for enhancing the robustness and applicability of watermarking in the evolving landscape of generative AI.