Digital Provenance

With modern AI tools, how do we know which images and videos are real and which ones are generated? Wouldn’t it be helpful to have some digitally verifiable way to tell where something came from and whether it has been altered? Turns out, that technology already exists. It’s open and free to use, and it’s supported by many technology companies. I’ll be digging into all the details of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) with Jacobo Castellanos from Witness.org.

Interview Notes

• Jacobo Castellanos: https://www.witness.org/portfolio_page/jacobo-castellanos/ 
• Witness: https://witness.org 
• Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity: https://c2pa.org/ 
• Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI): https://contentauthenticity.org/ 
• Content Credentials explainer: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a6282984 
• The Guardian Project: https://guardianproject.info/ 
• Creator Assertions Working Group: https://cawg.io/ 
• ProofMode tool: https://proofmode.org/ 
• C2PA Content Credentials and the Surveillance Risk: https://library.witness.org/product/c2pa-privacy/ 
• How C2PA works: https://contentauthenticity.org/how-it-works 

Further Info

• Digital Citizen, Phase 1: https://fdsd.me/phase1 
• Countdown to FDSD500!! https://fdsd500.com 
• Get your FDSD500 merch!! https://fdsd.me/merch 
• My book: https://fdsd.me/book 
• My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 

Table of Contents

• 0:00:13: Intro
• 0:01:17: Interview prep
• 0:02:39: Lingo
• 0:04:10: What is Witness.org?
• 0:06:22: What is the purpose of C2PA?
• 0:09:26: How does C2PA work?
• 0:17:28: Is C2PA embedded in our devices, too?
• 0:19:57: Are there fees or licensing required to use C2PA?
• 0:22:41: Does C2PA info include creator information?
• 0:26:41: As a user, how do I experience C2PA info?
• 0:30:54: Can C2PA be used to undo changes?
• 0:32:46: What are C2PA’s limitations?
• 0:38:36: Does C2PA report data to third parties?
• 0:41:07: Could C2PA be used to limit information?
• 0:45:27: Can C2PA info be removed? Reattached?
• 0:48:35: Is here a global C2PA content registry?
• 0:49:53: How do certificate authorities work?
• 0:53:37: Are any laws requiring provenance info?
• 0:56:56: How can we get involved?
• 0:59:15: How do we re-establish trust in our news?
• 1:02:27: Wrap-up
• 1:03:39: Patron podcast preview
• 1:05:23: Reminder for Phase 1
• 1:05:47: Looking ahead