New methods for assuring digital identity and authenticity

COMMENTARY | Authenticity and provenance must be enforced both at the application level and at the system level so agencies can be confident that user identity and the identity mechanisms themselves are genuine and trustworthy.

Digital photo editing tools and computer-generated imagery have been used for years to render realistic but artificial visuals in movie-making, advertising and science. High-end tools used by talented individuals entertain and educate us, as we know and accept that what we are seeing is an artistic creation. 

The proliferation of generative artificial intelligence changes the landscape. Synthetic visual and audio content is now being created by anyone and showing up anywhere. With deepfakes, bots and scammers, digital identities and information are increasingly easy to falsify. The growing challenges in proving someone online is who they claim to be ​are driving escalating demand for foolproof identity verification. Quietly, a new layer of defense is taking shape — anchored ...