Adobe, the publisher of Photoshop, took advantage of MAX, its international conference on creativity in Los Angeles, to launch, on Tuesday October 10, an authenticity label for images and soon also for videos and audio.
It is a marking technology which should make it possible to certify the origin of content and fight against misinformation, a discreet but visible logo: the appearance of a drop of water with, inside, the 2 letters C and R for “Content Credentials”, “Content authenticity label” in French.
This logo may be superimposed on the images, or appear next to them. It will provide access to a wealth of information such as the date, time, location of the shooting, the name of the author, if desired (so that some can remain anonymous for their own safety), the intervention – or not – of artificial intelligence, to create the image or modify it and, where applicable, the different stages of processing this image. Information that can be injected as soon as the photo is taken, with a new generation of devices.
Nikon and Leica: first two compatible cameras
Adobe MAX was also an opportunity for Nikon, with a prototype of the Z9, and Leica, with a modified M11, to present the first two cameras with the CR label, which can be activated by the user. Nico Köhler, Chief Experience Officer at Leica Camera, explains the manufacturer’s interest in this new label: “Nowadays, there is such misinformation that we can no longer be sure whether it is a real photo or an image created from scratch. We want to restore trust. And so, if you take a photo with this Leica, with the function activated, you will guarantee the origin of the image, and you will say that it was not generated artificially but by a Leica.”
To appear in an image visible to the public, this CR label must therefore be activated beforehand. However, the marking can also be added when passing through Photoshop, for example, by press agencies such as AFP, AP, Reuters, members of the CAI (Content Authenticity Initiative) consortium, at the origin of the label, large consumers of photos, before distributing them to their customers.
“The CR label is absolutely critical to combating misinformation and respecting copyright.”
Andy Parsons, Director of the Content Authenticity Initiative at Adobeat france info
The objective is for this logo to gradually become a habit and almost a reflex for the general public, especially since it can resist – a priori – all attempts at deletion.
“Even if you take a photo, and therefore the associated data – or metadata – has disappeared, says Andy Parsons, director of the content authenticity initiative at Adobe, The pixels remain and thanks to them, we can find the information linked to the image. And that’s absolutely critical to fighting misinformation, and respecting copyright.”
CR: Elon Musk took the opposite view of Twitter’s initiative
So, are all the digital giants ready to adopt the CR label? First of all, there are those who have joined the CAI initiative – this is the case of Microsoft, for example, which has just integrated the CR label into its AI-based Bing image creator – and there are those who are not there, or not yet.
With Apple, another example, it’s not a sure thing. It will still take time for CR to arrive in the iPhone. Despite some notable absences including Meta, the consortium has around 2,000 members including around 300 media. Among them, the Washington Postthere BBC, Radio-Canada and the Wall Street Journal or France Televisions.
There remains the challenge of integrating the CR logo through social networks: TikTok and X in the lead. The project started in 2019 under the leadership of Adobe, New York Times and this network that we still called Twitter. But that was before the arrival of Elon Musk, who seems to be banking less on technology and more on a community response.