Google joins AI watermarking coalition as deepfakes hit mainstream tech platforms
Google said Thursday it would join a coalition of tech and media companies including Adobe, Intel and Microsoft that is advancing a way to signal when a piece of media has been created or altered by artificial intelligence.
Google said Thursday it would join a coalition of tech and media companies including Adobe, Intel and Microsoft that is advancing a way to signal when a piece of media has been created or altered by artificial intelligence.
Google said it will look to use a project from Adobe called Content Credentials, which gives creators the opportunity to add a small “CR” symbol to AI media. That symbol links to information about when, where and how the media was edited. It would function as a form of metadata that indicates AI editing and allows viewers to verify images, videos, audio and documents.
The group, the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, or C2PA, doesn’t support enforcing such measures on all content, instead offering it as a way for institutions like news organizations and social media platforms to share trusted digital media in an age of rapidly evolving AI technology that can create realistic fake media and alter real media convincingly.
“The way we think we’re trying to solve the problem is first, we want to have you have the ability to prove as a creator what’s true,” said Dana Rao, who leads Adobe’s legal, security and policy organization and co-founded the coalition. “And then we want to teach people that if somebody is trying to tell you something that is true, they will have gone through this process and you’ll see the ‘CR,’ almost like a ‘Good Housekeeping’ seal of approval.”
The evolution of AI technology has made it possible to automate editing tasks that were previously time consuming and technically difficult, putting the ability to create synthetic media in the hands of millions of people. That has opened the door to creative endeavors as well as more nefarious efforts including disinformation and sexual abuse.
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