Adobe Photoshop is Adding New Authentication Tool to Fight Misinformation

Adobe is adding a new authentication tool on its photo editing software, Photoshop in a bid to combat misinformation. According to the company, the authentication tool will provide a secure layer of tamper-evident attribution data to photos, including the author's name, location and edit history that help customers understand the content available online. All the changes made to the image will appear on Photoshop as well as on Adobe-owned art sharing website Behance in a dedicated panel. The new feature will be available to select Photoshop and Behance customers via a beta release in the coming weeks and the company yet to share details about its global rollout.

The attribution tool coming to Adobe Photoshop is part of the company's open-source Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) that was introduced last year to address the challenges of deepfakes and "other deceptively manipulated content." The first CIA was launched last year in collaboration Twitter and the New York Times to combat rising misformation online. Adobe, in a video, highlights that the new authentication tool would allow users to add metadata such as thumbnail, produced by, edits and activity, and assets used. All the metadata is optional, and the editor can choose what information it wants to add. Once the edit is finished, Adobe will cryptographically sign the image so that the history of changes remain intact.

The new image available on Behance will contain all the information about the edits through a dedicated panel present at the top right corner. The company also explains that attribution matters for another critical reason as it adds pertinent credits to creators' work. "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)," Adobe adds. The authenticity tool currently works on still images; however, under the CIA, the company would leverage the technology to fight deepfakes.