Google’s Pixel 10 adds content credentials to every single image captured with the phone’s camera. If you’re not sure what any of that means, that’s completely fine. There are a whole lot of technical details that make up this entire process, but the simple explanation of what this means is that when you take a picture with the Pixel 10’s camera app, it adds data to the picture that proves it’s an image that was captured by a camera, and not generated with AI.
AI-generated content is becoming more and more prominent these days. That’s making it increasingly difficult to figure out what’s real and what’s not. Before long, it might be impossible to tell when an image is AI-generated just by looking at it. It’s already getting there. Thankfully, Google is doing its part with the Pixel 10 family of devices to make it pretty easy to verify real images.
The Pixel 10 camera app attaches content credentials to every single image it captures
There are a few specifics to this, but here’s basically what’s happening. When you capture an image (Google specifically says a JPEG photo) with the camera app, it attaches content credentials to the image, which can tell you the photo was taken with the camera app.
These content credentials can also identify if a JPEG image was edited with AI or non-AI tools. So, there’s no way to hide that a photo isn’t completely original, taken by you, and not altered. These kinds of credentials are added to images by the Google Photos app.
This might not sound like a big deal to some, but to most, it’s likely a breath of fresh air. In a world where AI is being woven into just about everything other than the fabric of reality itself, many users with a disdain for AI-generated content want to know when something isn’t generated with AI. It’s nice to look at a beautiful image of a landscape or city street and know that it was untouched by AI. Google isn’t stopping here, though. It also made sure to sprinkle on some security.
Google ensures that images aren’t identifiable
While it’s nice to be able to identify if an image is edited with AI or not, you don’t want those images captured with the camera to allow someone else to identify you. Here’s the scenario. You capture an image of the cityscape on your trip to Tokyo. Then you post it on Reddit, where you’re anonymous. What you don’t want is someone being able to identify you through data in the image.
Google refers to this as traceability. Basically, the image you captured contains a specific cryptographic key or signature. And if you share that photo through an anonymous account, such as one Reddit, then share a different photo on a public account, like on X, the cryptographic key for the image on Reddit could potentially be linked to the public image, if the same key was used to sign it. Thus, identifying you. It’s a lot more technical than that, but that’s the basic breakdown.
Google’s solution to combat this is by attaching a unique cryptographic key and certificate to each image. No key or certificate is ever used twice. So when you share an image on an anonymous platform, it can’t be linked to a different image you share publicly. Google also states that content credentials can be added to images offline. So, it doesn’t matter if your phone is connected or not.
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