- Adobe’s CAI can trace a media back to its origin
- Tracing the source can help tackle misleading and fake news
- CAI will be integrated with Adobe’s software
- The project aims to create a robust content attribution system
The Internet is full of surprises and rumors. An image posted can be edited or reused without a trace. To tackle this misuse, Adobe introduced a prototype that can link an image back to its origin. The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), still in beta, is a solution to tackle massive online misinformation. The project was announced back in November 2019 and is now available in Adobe Photoshop.
Since its announcement, the development team began working on implementing a proof-of-concept. CAI’s director, Andy Parsons, said earlier, “We think we can deliver a compelling sort of digestible history for fact-checkers consumers, anybody interested in the veracity of the media they are looking at.” And that the project aimed at creating a ‘robust content attribution’ system. It will embed data into images and other media in Adobe’s industry-standard image editing software.
How will creators benefit from CAI?
The CAI will appeal to the content creators as it will keep their signature with their work. Also, the project could provide a technological solution regarding an image-based-misinformation. By establishing a method to track its provenance, pictures, or videos on the internet can create a chain of custody. Social media feed and news sites could be analyzed, and inauthentic media will be filtered out via dedicated websites. CAI will thus create a layer of transparency and verifiable data.
This will empower creators and consumers with trust and transparency, with an industry-wide attribution framework. This tech can limit the spread of misleading content like deep-fakes. Though the CAI sounds like a turn on EXIF data, manipulating it will not be easy. The EXIF data is opt-in metadata embedded to image information, such as lens type or location. Unlike EXIF, the CAI will be more like a digital fingerprint system.
This attribution is expected to create a virtuous cycle on the internet. As more and more content creators will distribute their work with proper attribution, it will drive consumers towards it. The CAI will use the information and decide whether the media is fit for consumption. This will, in turn, reduce the influence of bad influence and limit misinformation.
In the future, such attribution may become ubiquitous. With apps like Instagram implementing their own CAI, and retrieve the source of an image and display it to the users. It would be similar to hashing techniques – a type of pixel-level cross-checking system – like a digital fingerprint.
