Adobe launches an app to certify the authenticity of digital content | | Generative ai learning path | Generative ai in investment management | Turtles AI

 Adobe is preparing to launch a web app for digital content certification in 2025, aiming to ensure authenticity and recognition for artists. The new technology could be an important step in the fight against misinformation and unauthorized use of works.

Key points:

•  Adobe will launch a beta version of its Content Authenticity app in 2025.
•  The system uses advanced technologies such as fingerprints and invisible watermarks to ensure the provenance of works.
•  The company promotes the adoption of content credentialing through partnerships with various industry players.
•  The platform allows artists to check whether their works are being used without consent in AI datasets

Adobe, known for its creative software, is addressing the growing problem of deepfakes and misinformation through an initiative that aims to ensure the provenance and authenticity of digital content. In the first quarter of 2025, the company plans to release a beta version of its Content Authenticity web application, designed to allow artists to apply credentials to their work, certifying it as their property. This initiative goes beyond simply modifying metadata, as it uses advanced technologies to ensure that credentials are protected and not easily altered, even in the case of screenshots. The system employs invisible watermarks that make imperceptible changes to pixels, along with fingerprints that encode an identifier in the file itself. In this way, even if the credentials are removed, the file can still be traced back to its original creator.

Andy Parsons, head of Adobe’s Content Authenticity division, said that content credentials will accompany digital works wherever they are used, both online and offline. However, the effectiveness of these measures depends on their adoption by artists and platforms. With a subscriber base of 33 million, Adobe has the potential to engage a wide range of creators. The web app will also be accessible to artists who are not users of Adobe software, further expanding the reach of the initiative. Adobe has also partnered with various industry groups to promote content authenticity, involving prominent names in the technology industry such as Microsoft and OpenAI, as well as social platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Although the participation of these companies does not guarantee immediate integration of content credentials, it is a significant step toward building broader consensus.

To facilitate access to content credentials, Adobe plans to launch a Chrome extension that will allow users to view this information on any web platform. An inspection tool will also be available to examine credentials associated with content. As it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between real and synthetic content, tools such as these could become essential for verifying the origin of works. Adobe is not opposed to the use of AI, but it is trying to clarify the use of this technology in artistic works by preventing the unauthorized inclusion of artists’ works in training datasets. The company has developed Firefly, its own generative AI tool, trained on Adobe Stock content to ensure that only authorized material is used. Despite many artists’ reservations about AI, Firefly’s integration into applications such as Photoshop has received favorable feedback, with significantly higher adoption rates than other features.

In addition, Adobe is collaborating with Spawning, another tool designed to help artists monitor and control the use of their work online. Spawning offers a Do Not Train registry, where artists can indicate that their works should not be included in artificial intelligence datasets. Although the effectiveness of this tool depends on AI companies’ compliance, so far Hugging Face and Stability have been willing to comply with this guidance. Adobe on Tuesday released the beta version of the extension for Chrome, while artists will be able to sign up to receive notifications about the launch of the full version of the web app scheduled for next year.

With these developments, Adobe aims to set a new standard for authenticity and recognition in the contemporary digital landscape.