As artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent and simpler to generate, distinguishing between authentic and fake content, including deep fakes, will become increasingly challenging. This challenge has created an opportunity for companies specializing in identifying AI-generated content.
One such company is OpenOrigins, a start-up established in 2021, which addresses the issue of fake media by employing blockchain technology to verify the authenticity of photos, videos, and other digital content. Recently, the company announced that it has raised $4.5 million in seed investment led by Galaxy Interactive and plans to expand globally.
London-based OpenOrigins provides news organizations with the capability to authenticate digital media both in real-time and retrospectively. Its point-of-capture software, which can be installed on cameras or iPhones, confirms that a photo or video was captured by a human. Additionally, it is capable of scanning extensive archives to validate the originality of existing content. This information is documented on the public and immutable Hyperledger blockchain, an open-source, Ethereum-based framework developed by the Linux Foundation.
Manny Ahmed, OpenOrigins’ CEO and co-founder, conceptualized one of the first deep fake detectors during his time as a PhD student at Cambridge University. He observed, however, that detectors could be used to train AI tools to produce more convincing deep fake generators, which eventually occurred. Consequently, Ahmed shifted his focus to developing an infrastructure that establishes the authenticity of human-made content. “Our goal is not to detect fakes, but to prove authenticity,” he explained to Fortune. “We’re using various data points to confirm that a photo or video is genuine.”
OpenOrigins collaborates with several British news outlets, including Sky News, The Sunday Times, The Sun, and ITN, a prominent media production company in the U.K. With the newly acquired funding, the company is now extending its reach internationally, beginning with India and the United States. Additionally, OpenOrigins is launching a marketplace to assist these newsrooms in effectively licensing their verified data for AI training.
Co-founder Ari Abelson emphasized the importance of securing internet content with evidentiary value, particularly in journalism, but noted the technology’s applicability across different sectors. Abelson suggested that it could assist in protecting insurance companies from fraud as well as verifying the authenticity of dating app profiles and Zoom calls.
Several other companies also utilize blockchain technology to certify digital content’s originality, such as the Verify protocol developed by Fox Corp in collaboration with Polygon Labs. Ahmed, however, asserts that OpenOrigins addresses scalability issues that competitors do not. “We are unique in providing authentication for both live content and historical content. To my knowledge, there is no other solution that combines both,” he stated.
Ahmed and Abelson plan to use the additional funding to expand their commercial team and hire within the United States. Ahmed highlighted the urgency of securing archives, stating, “Once AI videos become indistinguishable from non-AI ones, retroactively trusting those archives will be extremely challenging.”
