What is the Content Authenticity Initiative and how does it work with the new Leica M11-P camera?

What is the Content Authenticity Initiative and how does it work with the new Leica M11-P camera (check the full article here):

What is the Content Authenticity Initiative?

The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) is a collaborative effort initiated by Adobe in partnership with various other organizations, including The New York Times and Leica, among others. Announced in late 2019, its primary goal is to develop a standard for digital content attribution. The rise in manipulated digital content, deep fakes, and misinformation has underlined the need for a more transparent system of content attribution, which the CAI seeks to address.

How it Works on the M11-P

Unlocking this function is a secure chipset—one that, as of now, is only available in the M11-P—that can store certificated data and be used to encrypt image metadata at point of capture using a C2PA-confirmed algorithm. Users will need to activate the “Content Credentials” function in the camera, and this will allow the camera to “sign” images with the CAI information as part of the metadata.

At launch, the camera will encrypt the following data with each capture:

• Signed by Leica Camera AG
• Produced by [User’s Entered Information]
• Produced with [Leica M11-P]
• EXIF Data (except date & time)

All this information will be recorded as Content Credentials for DNG and JPG images. This data is independently verifiable. Sites like the Content Credentials Verify page will allow you to upload and view the Content Credentials and see how an image has changed and been edited over time. There is even a nice icon that can tell you when the function is active and, on some websites, this will serve as an indicator that it is properly signed and the image provenance information has not been manipulated.

Adobe, being a major player in the CAI, has adopted beta support for Content Credentials in Creative Cloud. In Photoshop, if you activate this feature, you can open signed files, make edits, and then save new images that retain the history of the image from capture to export.

Here is a video on the Leica Content Credentials in the M11-P:

Check Leica M11-P pre-orders:

Leica M11-P camera with Content Authentication and Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH lens officially announced