It’s getting harder to know what’s really real anymore. Whether it’s the Pope wearing Balenciaga or Donald Trump doing… many unsavoury things, artificial intelligence is making it hard to stick to reality. Adobe, one of the proponents of the AI image generation revolution, is aware of the effect AI technology is having on the world. It’s also taking steps to counteract those effects.
The steps include introducing Content Credentials to its library of AI-generated images. This is via a new Adobe Content Authenticity web app that lets users tag generated images with the sources of its computer-compiled brilliance. Because what artists on the internet really want is credit for their work.
Authentically Adobe
The point of Content Credentials is to try and rebuild trust in the visuals you see online. Some AI-generated pictures are obvious. Nobody has ever captured a penguin dunking a basket on a basketball court in the wild. But these composites, and similar others, are generally left unattributed. Despite having a license to create that composite, Adobe is also keen on letting the original artists have some recognition.
That’s why its new certification web app is already compatible with Lightroom, Photoshop, and Firefly, some of Adobe’s most popular Creative Cloud products. The app will “[help] creators protect their work from misuse or misrepresentation and build a more trustworthy and transparent digital ecosystem for everyone”. It injects metadata that creators can use to “share information about themselves and provide context about how their content was created and edited”.
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Content Credentials is not just for AI-created images. It’s an initiative the Creative Cloud owner has pushed since 2019. It’s been updated for 2024’s web app launch with the ability to designate images as AI-made. Other creator information, like a name or social media handles, can also be included and these will, in theory, possibly survive trips outside of Adobe’s ecosystem.
You’ll have to go looking for them, with a Content Authenticity extension coming to Chrome. The main web app also has an Inspect tool that will summarise available Content Credentials information, including an edit history if there is one.
The only catch? Only the Content Authenticity extension is available for use right now. A broader public beta of the web app is scheduled for early 2025. Creators can sign up for a spot and download the extension here.
