AI-generated content poses a serious disinformation threat online, but blockchain technology can help verify and authenticate the truth, according to William Ogden Moore, research analyst at Grayscale Investments.
As AI becomes more integrated into our daily lives, its impact on sectors such as finance will grow, enabling smarter investments and market analysis. However, the rise of generative AI has brought with it risks, particularly the creation of “deepfakes.” These ultra-realistic digital forgeries use AI to manipulate or create visual and auditory content. An example is the deepfake video of Barack Obama created by comedian Jordan Peele to highlight the potential dangers of the technology.
The spread of deepfakes is growing rapidly. According to a report by Sumsub Research, from 2022 to the first half of 2023, deepfakes’ share of content in the United States jumped from 0.2% to 2.6%. Experts warn that deepfakes could pose a threat to democracy around the world by swaying public opinion and influencing events such as elections.
Public blockchains such as Ethereum offer a potential solution. Its focus on transparency, decentralized nature, network security, and immutability makes it ideal for verifying content authenticity. Public blockchains record information transparently and accessible, so anyone can verify the validity of authorship, timestamps, etc. This decentralized structure reduces the risk of manipulation and ensures that records are tamper-proof.
Blockchain technology has already proven its ability to authenticate content, as seen in digital art in the form of non-fungible tokens. Blockchain can similarly authenticate videos, images, and text, laying the foundation for tools to combat deepfakes, such as OpenAI’s Worldcoin, Irys, and Numbers Protocol.
With AI-generated content expected to dominate the internet in the future, protecting against deepfakes is critical. Public blockchains run jointly by users offer promising features to address these challenges. However, this technology is still in its infancy and widespread adoption remains a challenge.
To maintain truth and transparency, society must commit to developing and implementing blockchain solutions while navigating the risks posed by emerging technologies.
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