Future of Transparency in Gen AI Starts with Smartphones

Generative AI is transforming digital content

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) is here to stay. It is already estimated that more than 65% of people born between 1981 and 2012 regularly use Gen AI. As Gen AI is becoming a central part of our collective societies and economies, every industry and government will develop policies to address this reality. Like all digital innovation, these breakthrough capabilities will be a staple on mobile devices. We will soon live in a world where any smartphone user will be able to generate hyper-realistic, synthetic content to share, send, or post anywhere online. Given that approximately 85% of the global population has access to a smartphone – a number that continues to increase – the scale and impact of these capabilities will undeniably reshape the internet.

We are in the midst of a dramatic shift in our information ecosystem where one’s ability to decipher between authentically created and AI created content is a necessity. “Real or AI?” will become the fundamental question of content consumers. In this evolving digital landscape, transparency and authenticity are the foundations required to maintain integrity of our shared informational ecosystem. Simply put, transparency is necessary to foster trust, ensure accuracy, and safeguard against the spread of deception and fraud, and it all starts on mobile devices. 

Breakthrough: authenticity on chip

Qualcomm and Truepic have been working tirelessly over the course of many years to prepare for this reality. Today, at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit, we announced the world’s first chipset to power transparency and authenticity in digital content across smartphones worldwide. The Snapdragon® 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform was unveiled featuring Truepic’s unique technology and helps chart a path to a more transparent future. This first of a kind chipset will power any device to securely sign either an authentic original image or generate synthetic media with full transparency right from the smartphone. This marks a watershed moment for the ethical and transparent use of Generative AI. 

How does it work?

This breakthrough is made possible by embedding Truepic’s technology into the Snapdragon’s Trusted Execution Environment to ensure that the original details of the media are verified and cryptographically sealed upon creation. By leveraging Truepic’s technology in firmware, applications on a supported device can add Content Credentials to any image output – synthetic or authentic. Content Credentials are image details that have been digitally signed according to an open technical specification developed and maintained by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), a cross-industry standards development organization Truepic helped develop. Content Credentials, which can be added to any Gen AI output from a device powered by the Snapdragon chipset, make it clear if the content has been altered since its creation. 

As synthetic media proliferates, the value and utility of authentic media – created by light will also increase. Truepic and Qualcomm went a step further to ensure you can differentiate between the two. Our teams have also enabled a process that will take advantage of the Snapdragon’s Trusted Execution Environment, to produce a transparent image with Content Credentials applied directly as the photo is produced. Therefore, media created on a device can be sent to any C2PA compliant website, platform, phone, or browser and display its origin & history. Further, media can be edited on device or moved to a compliant editing platform, like Adobe’s Creative Suite, to maintain full transparency of edits/changes.

The significance of advancing transparency

As technologists, government, academics, and institutions work together to produce a healthier information ecosystem, most agree that transparency in digital content is critical. Transparency, authenticity, and provenance are supported by legislators, forums, and government officials around the world, most notably in the White House’s voluntary commitments, the EU’s AI act, and by thought leaders like the Partnership on AI. 

In an effort to support these goals, Qualcomm and Truepic believe device level transparency is fundamental as the majority of digital content – synthetic or authentic – will come directly from smartphones. Truepic and Qualcomm are proud to lead the way through the combined innovations atop the Snapdragon Mobile Platform. OEMs will be able to leverage these capabilities in the chipset’s second wave of production in mid-2024. 

Jeff McGregor is the CEO of Truepic 

Judd Heape is the VP of Product Management for Camera, Computer Vision and Video Technology at Qualcomm