In an attempt to fight misinformation, Adobe included a new authentication feature to its photo editing software.
The company says that the authentication tool will offer a secure layer of tamper-evident attribution data to the photos. This includes the author’s name, location, and also the edit history. Through this the customers can finally know the content that is accessible online.
All the changes made will be visible not only on Photoshop, but also on Adobe-owned art sharing website Behance.
This feature will be accessible for only a few customers through the beta release. The latter will come out in a few weeks. However, the company is yet to release an official statement regarding the global launch of the feature.
The CAI by Adobe
Additionally, the authentication tool is a part of the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) by the company. The CAI was introduced last year in an attempt to focus on the issues of deepfakes and “other deceptively manipulative content”.
The very first CAI took place last year in collaboration with New York Times and Twitter to fight the spread of misinformation online.
In a video, Adobe stressed that the authentication tool will let users add metadata like thumbnail, edits and activity, produced by, and assets utilized. However, the metadata is optional. Also, the editor can choose what information to include.
After the edit is completed, Adobe will cryptographically sign the image. This is to ensure that the edit history of the image stays together.
The new image in Behance will have all the information related to edits via a panel at the top right corner.
Other reason is to add credits to the creator’s work
The company says that another reason for adding attribution is to include credits to the creator’s work.
Adobe states:
“Think of it as a simple equation: Exposure (for your creative work) plus attribution (so people know who created it) equals opportunity (for more collaborations or jobs)”
Right now, the authentication tool is working on images. Soon we can use it to combat deepfakes too.
