It’s getting harder and harder to tell which images we see online are real or AI-generated. While many attempts to distinguish the two involve watermarking AI outputs, Verify is taking the opposite approach. The tool checks images for authenticity and helps top camera makers embed credentials into photos as they’re snapped.
According to Nikkei Asia, an “alliance of global news organizations, technology companies, and camera makers” created Verify amid a rise in “sophisticated fakes.” The free, web-based tool allows users to view any image’s digital signature, which could contain date, time, location, and photographer details. If an image doesn’t have a digital signature or was created using AI, Verify will give it a “no content credentials” label. The hope is that Verify will become an integral component of the fight against AI misinformation, particularly in the media, which relies heavily on photographers to convey vital information.
Credit: Chuttersnap/Unsplash
Verify will dovetail with efforts by Nikon, Sony, and Canon to embed authenticity watermarks within their higher-end cameras’ outputs. Nikkei Asia reports that Nikon will soon offer professional-grade mirrorless cameras with built-in authentication technology, which will insert digital signatures into every photo. Sony will launch a similar initiative by issuing a firmware update to its mirrorless SLR cameras early this year. Meanwhile, Canon is expected to release a camera with built-in authentication signatures sometime in 2024, with video authentication signatures to come later in the year.
When it comes to fighting AI misinformation, watermarks aren’t a new technique. Last year, Google DeepMind started testing SynthID, which works alongside the company’s Imagen cloud model to mark AI outputs as machine-made. The watermarks survive most attempts at removal and distortion, including image cropping, filters, and lossy compression. SynthID can also scan images for AI watermarks and label them as AI-generated.
Verify flips Google’s SynthID concept on its head by offering behind-the-scenes proof that an image is not the product of AI. Digital signatures are meant to prevent legitimate photographs from being mistaken for AI outputs (and vice versa), but they could also reduce good old-fashioned plagiarism. Social media, portfolio pages, and other online spaces are rife with images credited to the wrong person, intentionally or by honest mistake. And while not everyone who views a photo online will dig into that photo’s digital signature, built-in credit could dissuade fraudsters from trying to pass off someone else’s pictures as their own.
Nikon, Sony, and Canon Cameras Will Soon Embed Watermarks in Photos - ExtremeTech
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