In a digital world increasingly populated by deepfakes, and multimedia content artificially generated by computers or artificial intelligence systems, it is becoming increasingly complicated to establish who created an image and whether it is authentic or not. Content Credentials is a new technological tool that aims to provide detailed information on the provenance and history of published content.
The technology was presented in 2022 by a consortium of companies, united under the name of C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity), and sees the active participation of companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, Leica and Nikon. Adobe has released a toolkit for creating digital certifications and recently unveiled a sticker to describe AI-generated images.
What are Content Credentials
Content Credentials answer a series of important questions: how the content was created, whether it was generated by artificial intelligence, when and by whom it was created or modified. Adobe and Microsoft, who wish to make their proposition one standard actual, they explain that a tool like Content Credentials helps to build trust, allowing users and professionals to realize that the content they are watching is certified, never manipulated over time. By clicking on the badge of Content Credentials, you can access further details about the provenance and history of each piece of content.
Content authors can choose to attach Content Credentials to their works by specifying information on permitted use and for example denying consent for automated processing by the artificial intelligences, for example for the purposes of training generative models. The added metadata is integrated into the image, creating a permanent registration easily verifiable and cannot be modified by unauthorized parties.
Il operation of Content Credentials is based on open technical guidelines developed within C2PA. Issuers of Content Credentials, such as devices, software and organizations, identify themselves within the registry data, thus taking responsibility for verify the information accurately.
Leica M11-P, the first camera to support Content Credentials
Leica announced his M11-Pa digital camera capable of automatically adding to shots all the metadata useful for ascertaining when, who and how created the content.
When taking a photo with the M11-P, the camera incorporates within the image information such as the manufacturer, model, who took the photo, when and how. This data can be viewed on the Analyze Content for Insights page and in the Leica FOTOS app. The operation is managed in hardware rather than at software level: M11-P integrates a special chip that stores a digital certificate issued by a German federal public body.
Image taken from the YouTube video by Nick Rains (Leica) explaining how Content Credentials works and how the new Leica M11-P camera allows its use.
Talking about Technical specifications, Leica’s M11-P is the third product in the series, after the M11 and M11 Monochrome. The integrated memory is equal to 256 GB, quadrupling the allocation initially foreseen by Leica for the M11 (64 GB).
