A distinctly British scandal triggered by sloppy photo editing has sparked calls for watermarking untouched images.
The pleas come after a picture of Princess Kate intensified wild rumours about her whereabouts.
But the photo only heightened the speculation.
Online sleuths soonspottedclear signs of manipulation.
One of Kates hands, they noticed, was peculiarly blurred.
Her daughters jumper was missing a portion of the cuff.
Her sons fingers had an unnatural position.
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They withdrew the photos from circulation the same day.
Yet these responses only encouraged the conspiracy theorists.
They speculated that Kate had died or even worse abdicated.
All the uproar has sharpened the sense of chaos surrounding the monarchy.
Its also strengthened the case for image authentication.
He wants to stamp unedited photos asguaranteed originals.
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It could also be far simpler than watermarking AI-generated content an approachattracting growing support.
The difference, Davenport told TNW, stems from motivation.
Watermarking AI has problems
For photos, cameras and phones would need signature systems to authenticate images.
Photographers and rights-holders would then apply the stamps to their pictures.
As a result, news organisations could warn their audiences when a picture isnt rubber-stamped.
On a technical level, the approach resembles digital signatures on documents.
Itwould rely on mutual trust to succeed, but each party has good reasons to cooperate.
If they didnt, their photos would become less trusted.
WatermarkingAI, by contrast, would require people motivated by deception to always do the right thing.
Bad actors wont sign up and can alreadyevade the stampsthat others add.
What is really needed is watermarking guaranteed originals, which is certainly technically possible.
One of the themes of this years TNW Conference is Ren-AI-ssance: The AI-Powered Rebirth.
Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he e(show all)Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse).
