Sign Your Work with Adobe Content Authenticity

[Music] [Cheriss May] My name is Cheriss May, and I am a photographer and an educator. I am based in Washington, D.C., but I do travel a lot to, Los Angeles too, for work.

I am a photographer who covers everything from-- I do portraits, I do documentary work...

As you can imagine being in D.C., I do a lot of politics, as you can imagine. And then also I'm an educator...

At Howard University, which is my alma mater. HU? You know? I'm going to do my own call and response. That's what we do. If I had any bison's in the room, that's what we do. I would call out HU and they would respond, you know-- Alright. So I got that out of the way. But I'm originally from Kansas City, Missouri, spending most of my time, like I said, in Washington, D.C. And in my work, I see more and more, especially during this election cycle, the importance of transparency and truth, so that people can make informed decisions. I have work out there that I create in the photojournalism space. I want people to be able to see the truth in that image, so that they can make their own decisions from that. I don't want to show any bias or anything. I want them to see it as I saw it or experienced it in that moment.

So what's very important to me is, as a creator and a photographer, when my work leaves my camera, my hands, my computer, where does it go? Is there a way for me to track where my images are going? Is there a way that once it leaves me, am I able to see how it's used? So what if there was a way that we could connect our attribution to the images in this Internet, in the digital space, as it travels, even more.

So as you heard and if you were in the keynote this morning, we talked about Content Credentials, which is a new, Adobe Content Authenticity initiative that Adobe was working on for five years. So now what we have is, in beta, these Content Credentials. And this is the start of a way to have creators and producers of this content have their work connected to them as the creator.

Okay. Anybody recognize this photo here, which became a meme that went viral? You guys familiar with the Michael Jordan meme? Okay. Okay. So we had this Michael Jordan meme that was spreading around.

So I had an assignment where it was a Presidential Medal ceremony at the White House. And this was during the time when President Obama was in the White House. And Michael Jordan was one of the awardees getting this medal. And so President Obama teased Michael Jordan before he brought him up and said, "Oh, you're going to cry like you're meme that we see all the time." And he's like joking with him. So then I take this photo of Michael Jordan sitting there waiting to receive his medal and he starts tearing up again. So next thing I know, a couple days later, I get-- Because I have these Google alerts set up on my images to-- It's not felt safe though, because I feel like-- Some of it slips to the crap, but it does show me sometimes when my images are used and my attribution is there, I can see it. So I got this notification that the photo was used and it was a story that came out-- This was in 2016. A story that came out and said, "Hey guys, you remember this, MJ meme, crying MJ meme? Well, now we have crying MJ 2.0." And it was my photo in the story. I was like, "Okay, great." I didn't even know that that was going on.

Has anybody had their work memed or taken without their permission? Raise your hands. Let me see. Yep. So you're familiar with that feeling when you create something, and then it gets out of your hands and somebody re-appropriates it without your permission or without licensing. So this started to be memed. I've been in a situation where I actually had a friend I went to school with, I went to college with, and I was on his Facebook page. And he created this meme and it was one of my photos. And I was like, "Mark, that's my photo, where'd you get that photo?" And he's like, "I got it off of Google images." And I was like, "Oh, well, that's my photo." And he said, "Well, you want me to take it down?" But by that time he had put it out there, it was already out there.

And then he said, "I thought that any images that were on Google Images were just free, you could just take it and use it how you want." And I was like, "No, the work is protected on there, although it's on Google Images, you have to have the permission or the license for it." So for me, in the work that I do, I see firsthand the importance of having that attribution connected to your work, so that if somebody even screenshots your work, there's a way to trace it back to you as the one who created it.

So what we have is, this was breaking news, one day at the White House where President Biden called a press conference, and he was talking about actions that were going to be taken, with the situation with Gaza in Israel. And so he called-- What they call? In-house press pool into the dining room, and so we were there to hear his remarks and what he talked about. So this particular photo here, you'll see the CR logo in the top corner there, and what that is showing is that I have my Content Credentials connected to that photo.

And for me, the process of how that started was I, created that photo with this camera here, and this is a Leica M11-P, which was the very first camera that's in market, that's out there that you can purchase, that has built-in Content Credentials. It's built in to the camera. Now we have other companies, they've joined the initiative and they're doing products and everything. But I was working with this camera during the pre-release to market, and it was exciting for me because in the work that I do, in the space of White House Capitol Hill, when you're dealing with breaking news, historical people, places and things, you want to have-- And at least this is how I feel. I want to have a layer of I want to be transparent. I want people to be able to view the image and know what the origin of that image is and know even the history, the provenance of that image when I edit it. Like, did I doctor this photo or did it come straight from the camera and maybe I just adjusted tone a little bit or exposure, but what all did I do to this camera? So you can see on the screen there, the way you get to it, the Content Credentials on the camera, is you initially, when you get the camera, you have to turn the Content Credentials on. So as you can see on the screen, it says, "On," and then you enter your copyright and produce by information there. So once you do that once, you set it and forget it. And so now what happens is, whatever images I create with this camera, it's going to have the Content Credentials attached, to the file. So when I bring it into Lightroom, when I bring it into Photoshop, it's going to have those credentials connected, so that when you go into there and you export the photo for use out there, it's going to have those credentials. Now the one thing I want to point out though, because I don't want you to just go and look now and because some it's still being adopted, and so I think, like LinkedIn, someone showed us at the booth the other day. On LinkedIn, they've already started rolling out, where they're showing the CR logo on some things, so then you'll be able to tell, click on that and see the provenance of that particular image. But some places, if I've already used it to put some images on Instagram, but Instagram hasn't adopted showing that logo on there just yet. But it's there. It's invisible, but it's there.

So now what you're going to see is a series of images because I use the camera and I use the technology on everything from portraits to photojournalism to everything, in studio, out of studio. But to me, it's really important, and I can't stress this enough. What I want to say is, in this, when we talk about the provenance of the image and in the the proliferation of AI-generated imagery...

You can check for yourself. I can tell you but if I look at you and say, "Hey, trust me. I didn't doctor this photo. This really happened." You don't know me. So what's to say that you are going to trust me? So what I say is verify for yourself. Check for yourself. And there's a way in using this and what we're interested in using today, this new CR web, where you can upload the image there and you can check for yourself. You can see the history of that image, you can see who created that image. All those things there. And for me that is critical, especially like I was saying earlier, in this era of mis- and disinformation that is rampant right now.

So now what I want to do is actually show you a short, sizzle reel that gets you a little further into these Content Credentials. [Music] Alright.

Let's give it up for the designer that put the sizzle reel together.

Love it. Love it. So now what I want to do is take you through a short demo, to show you like-- Has anyone already scanned the QR code at the booth to get on the waiting list? For this? You did? Okay. Okay. Well, afterwards, there may be some cars to jump you out of the waiting list, so. But, yeah, for real. There'll be some people around that can give you a card that will fast track you. Because right now there's a waiting list, but the good thing is you're in here, so we're going to hook you up, so. Alright. Alright. So let's get into this demo.

So when you initially sign on to the website, you'll see this landing page, and sign your work with Content Credentials, you'll click on Get Started.

Alright. So what we have is, what we like into calling a new-- Like a nutrition label. If you see on the right, it has the attribution, but also it has the date, and it has your social profiles. So you connect your social profiles. That way when your photos, or your images, your designs, live in this space, there's a way that when it tracks back to you, people can find you through these social channels. So Behance, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter. Also what I want to point out is there is right under that where you connect your social profiles, it says, there's a generative AI training, little checkbox. And so in that, if you check that, then you're saying, "I don't want my images to be used to train on." And this is something that Adobe has made that a commitment to say, they're not just going to take people's images to train on, they want to get your permission. So this is something that was very important for them to put there. And this is not to say that everyone has bought into this here, but the hope is that it'll become like a standard where people will say, "Yeah, let's go with this." So the more that you have, those companies joining on board with the initiative, then the hope is that they will respect that.

So then, this is how it would look, once it gets out there and you export it and upload into some of the social media pages, and you'll see the little CR logo up there. And so that will indicate to you that this has the Content Credentials attached, and then you will be able to click on or hover your mouse on that logo to see the provenance of that particular image. Alright. So what I want to do is I want to invite my friend up here, Michael Fugoso, if you'll come up. Yay!

Good. Oh, oh, yeah. I love hugs. - [Michael Fugoso] Bring it in. - Yeah.

Hey, everybody, you might recognize me from yesterday's keynote, the illustrator. Yay! Illustrator Objects on Path. Yeah, it's my favorite tool. I have a funny story about that, really quick. They made an article in the verge, and then they said, "Oh, I really like that guy's Bill and Ted energy." I'm like, "Great, that's awesome. Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it. Take it as a compliment." I think the title of the article was, "What up, homies?" Or something like that. I forgot, anyway, anyway.

So I want to talk about just my story and why Content Credentials is important to me. Well, first off, I pay 14.99 for a verification badge on Instagram every month, right? So that right there is important to me just because I had a lot of impersonators the past few years and things like that, and there was actually one time where my accounts got stolen in Instagram, and then I had to get it back. And I have to then pay for the verification badge and all that stuff. So that's why this is important to me. So now to protect it using Content Credentials in our individual art pieces is incredibly important, just because my work is almost everything to me. It's about how I built my whole life. Right? If you look at all of this space stuff that I that I make-- It's like hours and hours of texturing and making all of the depth effects and all that stuff.

Some of these take me weeks or months to make, you know. And it's not only that. It's not only the time and the hours it takes to make one of these things. It's a story behind it.

Everything I make, space stuff. I make space stuff because my dad. It's a story of my dad and how he got me into this.

My dad really wanted me to be an aerospace engineer.

It's an Asian family thing, they want you to be engineers or doctors. I don't know if anyone's familiar. So I was like, "I'm sorry dad, I failed out of calculus. It's little too hard for me." So we went over to art school, and then let's go flourish there. Right? "I'm going to show you, Dad," this is like happy revenge against my dad. "I'm going to show you, man, and I'll make you proud of me." And so I worked really hard in the arts, right? Yeah, and then I was like, "I'm going to be determined to penetrate into the aerospace industry as an artist." So that was my mission, that was my goal. Right? So pretty much what-- Prior to me working at Adobe-- I work at Adobe now as a evangelist. Sorry, I probably should have introduced myself earlier. But, yeah, I'm a Senior Design Evangelist at Adobe. Prior to me working here, I was primarily working in the aerospace industry, making rocket ships and space stuff and planes and things like that. So you know, it's like that whole story that-- The scenario of anyone being able to take this art, and believe me, it's happened to me plenty of times. Right? I've had logos made that was-- Like a company in Spain has taken a logo that I've sold to another company. Right? It was a sushi logo at a restaurant, and then the restaurant was saying, "Well, I paid for this from another designer." So the other designer stole that. You know what I mean? All I have for proof is my files and the date that they were created. But you know, that's not really enough for a lot of people these days. So just having something like this, it's easy. Everything is recorded. You can see the source of where it's all from. It's from me, you know? Anyway, long story short, the restaurant was like, "Screw you." They're not like a big enough company too, for me to go after, and things like that. But yeah. So for my artwork here, which is honestly more important to me than the logo, I'll be honest, because it's like, it's a personal thing to me. These were passion projects. This is my dad is in every single piece of my artwork. Right? That's something I want to protect.

So like I said, I would do it on the-- I would pay that 14.99 on Instagram, and I'm so happy that we have this to just protect each one of my individual pieces. So that's basically what I wanted to tell you today and how important this stuff is to me.

Thanks, everybody. I'd be happy to answer questions. We're doing some Q&A. Right? - Yeah. - Yeah. So but what I wanted to say, so Michael as a designer and I'm a photographer, we're all creatives. No matter what you all do out there as well.

And I think what's universal or what is the same for us similar is when you create work, you're proud of that work, but you also want to protect the work that you created. So when they announced this, the AI-generated imagery...

Some of the concern I heard from some of my friends and colleagues was that's going to take over people hiring designers and photographers to do the work, or the concern of your work being taken or stolen to use in the AI-generated imagery. So I think what we have as creatives, we want credit for the work that we do. We want that attribution. We also want to know where it goes, or when it gets go somewhere, that you don't know, maybe there's a way to track that and to trace that. So for me, this is personally very important, because having that connection, and also being able to, as Michael was saying, the only thing he had was his files with the date. So now this is like an extra layer of something that we have, that will be helpful when we're proving, "I did in fact produce this. I did in fact create this." So I think at this point, like Michael was saying, we're going to do like a Q&A, so I want to invite, Pia and Noga up for that.

- [Pia Blumenthal] Good. - Yeah!

Hi, everyone. My name is Pia. I am the Product Designer for Adobe's Content Authenticity team. And so a lot of the UI and the product experience, I have directly worked on with my team, a lot of hard work and collaboration, also with Noga and number of others who are not present with us, but we're really excited to demo this. Come to the booth. We'll give you the full tour. But to take it back to the CR icon, so Content Credentials is the name of this experience built on an open technical standard that Adobe among many other companies, big social platforms, news agencies, camera, hardware developers are all invested in developing. So Content Credentials, to get to that icon, we've truncated that name down to CR in a very unique way. And we did so because we were looking at other universal attribution symbols like copyright, creative commons that invest in those characters. And so we wanted to align ourselves with something that could be ultimately ubiquitous, but, of course, that means that we have to build meaning into it. So we were looking at these existing patterns, like a copyright notice where maybe you can take this special icon and pair it with other information. So it's really a flexible symbol. Right now, it is intended to appear on top of, or alongside of, or on some interaction pattern with your content as a way to let anyone viewing your content know that there are Content Credentials available. We do see this here at the moment...

Permanently on top of the content. That's definitely not the default. This does not get baked into your work at all. It's really up to the implementer to choose how and what the best practice is for their viewers to find this information. This is, again, back to the initiative, a broad exploration that I think we'll end up seeing different ways to find that CR icon on different websites. But LinkedIn does show it today. Adobe, Behance as well. It's rolling out everywhere. That's a little bit of the background on the icon. I can definitely keep going on this topic, but I think there might be more questions. So I want to ask Noga.

So once we upload our our images, our work onto the CR web.

Where does it live? How can we find this? How can we see the images or see that, is there a way to view what you have uploaded to the CR web? [Noga Hurwitz] Yeah, it's a great question. So I'll caveat all of this with we're in private beta right now, and so part of our goal and invitation to you is to help us build out both the product, but the movement and adoption and initiative around it. Right now, we're not in the business of storing your stuff because it's yours. And so when you go to Content Authenticity, you can drop in your files up to 50 at a time, apply those sweet customized Content Credentials, get them back and then do whatever you want with them as you share them online. It's like your last destination before you share them with the world. And we think this is the first step, like the dream that is not so far away is to have this live within Photoshop and Illustrator and wherever your work flows exist. So you just toggle something on saying, "Yes, I want credit for my work and models to not train on it," and you get that for free until that point we have this site. But it's your file management. And if people are into additional file storage solutions, it's something we'd love to talk about and to hear from you. Okay. Thank you. Beautiful. So when we look at this, it's like a digital nutrition label, which is the metadata, really. And we're familiar with the metadata. How is this different-- In this either one or both. How is this different from metadata, just regular metadata when you use the Lightroom or-- Yeah. Okay. So maybe we should explain what Content Credentials were at the beginning. This is really a special new type of metadata that exists in a more durable fashion. So when we talk about a nutrition label as a representative of what a Content Credential is, it's because what this does is it asserts information about how something is made and who is involved. And, of course, there are existing metadata standards that allow a creator to express this, but something that Content Credentials does is it's based on a trust model where the tool used to produce content, edit it, publish it, has some veracity behind it that's, again, shared and recognized by all implementers of this open standard. So first of all, it's a lot more secure. It has this trust model that basically says, "This is machine verified information, that's going into it." There's also a layer of durability. What we do especially with this new website that we're now available to show you at the booth later Adobe Content Authenticity we're adding an invisible watermark that not only allows us to embed this information in the file, but into the pixel content as well, and share-- Excuse me. Make that much more accessible wherever your content is shared. So it's very common where you upload something on a website, that data gets stripped off, maybe the image or asset is resized for distribution. These are all very common practices, but your data may be lost with traditional metadata because of that watermark. And because it's baked into the pixel content, it can survive all of these processes. So even if you have a Content Credential, you upload it somewhere, the data itself of the content is stripped out. It survives through the watermark and through our Adobe Content Authenticity tools. We have ways to help make that a lot more recoverable. So you can still view this on platforms that don't yet support Content Credentials, and you can still access it even if someone screenshots your work. So that's actually a number of reasons why this is much more different, definitely a better practice, and why we're encouraging everyone today to start. Think of it as an early adopter. Start credentialing your work because this will roll out to a lot more places on the web, and this will help you you assert your information and have it tied back to you wherever you are. I love that. I love that it's a more durable metadata, because metadata is important, but there are ways that people were doing things even with that. So I love that.

And I just want to-- I have to do this too. I was talking about this particular camera and we have some guys in the room who actually were responsible for creating this and put in the camera all the way from Germany. So thank you guys for coming. Thank you for creating this.

- Yeah, I like that. - Yeah. So because I think it is really important and I think as it's adopted and becomes an industry standard and you'll have more companies who will invest in that because it's really good to have the credentials at the point of capture within the camera because that makes it even more durable. So I'm excited about that. But I wanted to ask Michael, as a creator-- What's that? What is the thing that you are most excited about what this technology can do for you as a creator? It basically, it's-- It's just protection.

So I told you a story about my stuff getting stolen, my logo getting stolen. Like, my stuff is stolen all the time. All the time. Like, if you go on Etsy, I bet you if you-- Are you illustrators? I bet you if you go on Etsy, there's some company out there that took your stuff and is putting it on wallpapers that you can order that onto your wall. So I have a few of those. It's basically just-- You just want to feel that sense of, like-- Yeah. Like meaning of doing this more and more. - Right? - Yeah. Like, because every time your stuff gets stolen, you're like, "No! I don't want to do this again if it can just easily be taken away." Yeah. So basically, yeah. It's the protection. Yeah. I agree. That's one of the big things for me as well, is that protection.

I'm curious. Earlier in the keynote today, Scott mentioned this notion of proof of humanity or showing that there is human creativity behind what you produce and how content controls can be a way to demonstrate that. How do you think about content creation now with so much more generations out there? Thanks to AI and just lower barriers to entry.

For me, I'm excited about it because there's still creative capital. It's still, your mind that is even within prompts like you have to come up with an idea. So I'm not mad at because there wasn't talk about that at least among photographers is like, "Oh, I hate AI because it's trying to replace me," and I don't think of it like that. I think of it as just another tool in the tool belt and the tool kit, that you can use as a creator. My thing is I just want people to be well informed. I don't want AI to be used in the various ways of trying to trick people and make them think something is when it isn't or something happened when it didn't. And that's especially important during this election cycle. I can't stress that enough.

That it's used either way, either not trying to take credit for something that was said or done and blaming it, blaming AI for that or the reverse and opposite of that. So I like it as a tool. It's just another tool. As creatives, we love tools.

So I'm not mad at that. I just want us as creators to be transparent to people who are consuming what we're creating and letting them know, "Okay, I use these tools," or "so I used AI for this, and you can see it for yourself. Check for yourself." Because I can tell you, like I was saying earlier, and I could say trust me, but you don't know me. So to have provenance tools where it puts the power in your hands to check for yourself, that's what I'm excited about.

Alright. So anything else you know that you'd like to share about this, the technology, CR Web, in dealing with, concert credentials with our-- It's cool. It's early days, right? It's a movement that's rolling out across the web. It's a tool that is in private beta, and we believe in the potential of it. I hope that by being here, you do too, or you're doubtful, or you have questions and want to chat with us about it. I think, I spend a lot of my time on the Internet and have all these parasocial relationships with the people who create the tools that I use. I hope it doesn't feel that way with us, and we invite you to chat with us and continue reaching out as you start using these tools and sharing feedback around what resonates and what doesn't. Pia and I really like talking to creators. Pia is a creator, and I like talking to her and getting her perspective on these things. And so much potential ahead, and we're excited that you're here to help us build it. And not just creators here, but also folks here from the photography from the camera companies. It's really exciting that this is a robust ecosystem. It's not just Adobe, it's the Internet and and content in general. And so lots ahead.

[Music]

In-Person On-Demand Session

Sign Your Work with Adobe Content Authenticity - S6402

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ON DEMAND

Closed captions in English will be added in early November.

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Speakers

  • Cheriss May

    Cheriss May

    Storyteller/Educator, Ndemay Media Group

  • Michael Fugoso

    Michael Fugoso

    Sr. Design Evangelist for Next Gen Creative Pros, Adobe

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About the Session

Discover how and why creative professionals are applying Content Credentials to their work with the free Adobe Content Authenticity web app. Share your name, generative AI training and usage preferences, and more, directly from your work with Content Credentials–durable metadata that stays connected to your content where it’s shared.

Don’t miss your chance to find out:

  • How to apply Content Credentials quickly and easily in the new and free Adobe Content Authenticity web app
  • What Content Credentials are all about, and why the creative community is applying them to their work
  • Why every creative pro should be using Content Credentials in the age of social media and generative AI where attribution and trust are more important than ever before

Technical Level: General Audience

Category: Industry Best Practices

Track: Photography, Graphic Design and Illustration

Audience: Art/Creative Director, Educator, Graphic Designer, Photographer

This content is copyrighted by Adobe Inc. Any recording and posting of this content is strictly prohibited.


By accessing resources linked on this page ("Session Resources"), you agree that 1. Resources are Sample Files per our Terms of Use and 2. you will use Session Resources solely as directed by the applicable speaker.

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