Microsoft has announced two new technologies focused on combating disinformation.
First up, Microsoft Video Authenticator, which reviews photos videos or audio files to see if they were artificially manipulated with a confidence score. The second is a technology for detection of content within Azure for adding hashes and certificates to authenticate content, and then a reader (which can be used in ways like a browser extension) that verifies the content.
Within the blog are a number of additional resources, including a educational tool for voters in the US to learn about synthetic media and help spot deep fakes.
Why do we care?
First off, tactically, these resources are especially useful in the constant need to deliver education and value to users. Leverage the websites and information in your marketing material to add additional value to customers.
This connects back to the Adobe improvements discussed on August 17, where Photoshop would embed data into content via their Content Authenticity Initiative, of which Microsoft is a part. Microsoft did not explicitly name the initiative in the release.
These are technologies that are quickly developing which focus on ethics and data trust – a growing trend and one I want to continue to highlight as I consider it such high value services.
Source: Microsoft