The Biden White House recently enacted its latest executive order designed to establish a guiding framework for generative artificial intelligence development - including content authentication and using digital watermarks to indicate when digital assets made by the Federal government are computer generated. Here's how it and similar copy protection technologies might help content creators more securely authenticate their online works in an age of generative AI misinformation.
A quick history of watermarking Analog watermarking techniques were first developed in Italy in 1282. Papermakers would implant thin wires into the paper mold, which would create almost imperceptibly thinner areas of the sheet which would become apparent when held up to a light. Not only were analog watermarks used to authenticate where and how a company's products were produced, the marks could also be leveraged to pass concealed, encoded messages. By the 18th century, the technology had spread to government use as a means to prevent currency counterfeiting. Color watermark techniques, which sandwich dyed materials between layers of paper, were developed around the same period.
Advertisement monitoring and audience measurement firms like the Nielsen Company have long used watermarking techniques to tag the audio tracks of television shows to track and understand what American households are watching. These steganographic methods have even made their way into the modern Blu-Ray standard ( the Cinavia system), as well as in government applications like authenticating drivers licenses.
#digital watermarks #content authentication #generative AI #copy protection #AI-generated misinformation
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