TL;DR:
- Deepfake concerns rise, with 84% of Americans worried about 2024 implications.
- Fox partners with Polygon Labs to launch “Verify,” a blockchain protocol.
- Verify enables media outlets to register and verify content authenticity.
- Fox already uses Verify for Fox News, Fox Business, and Fox Sports.
- The protocol is open source and supports all media content types.
- Verify can serve as a licensing tool for AI platforms and media companies.
- Adoption of Verify depends on publishers, consumers, and AI vendors.
Main AI News:
In an era marked by the growing proliferation of deepfake technology, concerns about its potential to deceive and foster mistrust have surged among security experts and the general public alike. A recent survey conducted by McAfee underscored this unease, revealing that an overwhelming 84% of Americans are deeply apprehensive about the impending use of deepfakes in 2024, especially within the realm of elections and public figures’ addresses.
Various remedies to combat the deepfake conundrum have been proposed, ranging from cryptographic watermarks to metadata solutions, yet none have proven flawless. Interestingly, an increasing number of news entities are gravitating towards blockchain technology as a robust mechanism for certifying the authenticity of content from credible sources.
In a groundbreaking move, Fox has joined this trend by announcing its strategic partnership with Polygon Labs, a layer-2 blockchain platform specializing in enhancing Ethereum’s scalability. Together, they are unveiling an open-source protocol named “Verify,” tailored specifically for media organizations to catalog their articles, images, and more. Fox and Polygon are positioning Verify as a tool to safeguard intellectual property rights while empowering consumers to authenticate the legitimacy of content.
Melody Hildebrandt, Fox’s Chief Technology Officer, elaborated on Verify’s capabilities, stating, “The Verify protocol establishes the origin and history of original journalism by cryptographically signing individual pieces of content on the blockchain. It’s powered by a content graph, binding content to its verified publisher.”
The New York Times has ventured down a similar path with its News Provenance Project, utilizing blockchain to track metadata like sources and edits for news photographs. Additionally, Truepic, a startup specializing in photo and video authentication, notarizes content on both the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains to establish a comprehensive chain of custody.
Fox’s ambition with Verify surpasses previous endeavors. The company introduced a beta version of Verify, developed in conjunction with Polygon, in August, coinciding with the GOP primary debate broadcasted on Fox News. As of now, Fox employs Verify to register content across its portfolio of brands, including Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports, and affiliated TV stations, with approximately 80,000 pieces of news content already signed using Verify.
Hildebrandt emphasizes that Verify is fully open source and accessible for use by publishers and developers alike. Fox has also released its own tool, enabling the verification of uploaded images or articles via URL, matched against assets registered within the Verify protocol. When a match is found, Fox’s Verify app divulges publisher information associated with the content, along with the original headline and URL. In cases where no match is identified, it suggests that the content is likely fabricated or manipulated.
Beyond mere authentication, Verify has the potential to serve as a conduit for content licensing to vendors engaged in training or deploying generative AI models—a particularly compelling application as the dispute between vendors and news publishers escalates. Through Verify, publishers can enforce controls to ensure fair compensation, dependent on how vendors choose to utilize their content.
Hildebrandt adds, “Verify is also a technical on-ramp for AI platforms to license publisher content with encoded controls via smart contracts for LLM training or real-time use cases. We’re in discussions with several media companies and anticipate sharing more updates on that front soon.”
Nevertheless, it’s important to note that participation in Verify remains voluntary, and its success hinges on the willingness of publishers, news consumers, and generative AI vendors to embrace the platform. Potential hurdles, including competing authentication solutions, may influence their decisions. Ultimately, time will reveal the extent of Verify’s impact on the media landscape.
Conclusion:
The collaboration between Fox and Polygon Labs in introducing the blockchain-based “Verify” protocol addresses the escalating concerns around deepfake technology. This move signifies a growing trend within the media industry to utilize blockchain for content verification and protection. “Verify” has the potential to establish a new standard for content authenticity and licensing, but its success ultimately hinges on widespread adoption among publishers, consumers, and AI vendors, and it may reshape the media landscape by fostering trust and transparency in an era of digital deception.
