Media Integrity and Authentication: Status, Directions, and Futures

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.18681v1
• Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2026 01:06:13 GMT
• Title: Media Integrity and Authentication: Status, Directions, and Futures
• Authors: Jessica Young, Sam Vaughan, Andrew Jenks, Henrique Malvar, Christian Paquin, Paul England, Thomas Roca, Juan LaVista Ferres, Forough Poursabzi, Neil Coles, Ken Archer, Eric Horvitz,
• Abstract summary: We focus on distinguishing AI-generated media from authentic content captured by cameras and microphones.<n>We evaluate several approaches, including provenance, watermarking, and fingerprinting.
• Score: 5.841269175925866
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: We provide background on emerging challenges and future directions with media integrity and authentication methods, focusing on distinguishing AI-generated media from authentic content captured by cameras and microphones. We evaluate several approaches, including provenance, watermarking, and fingerprinting. After defining each method, we analyze three representative technologies: cryptographically secured provenance, imperceptible watermarking, and soft-hash fingerprinting. We analyze how these tools operate across modalities and evaluate relevant threat models, attack categories, and real-world workflows spanning capture, editing, distribution, and verification. We consider sociotechnical reversal attacks that can invert integrity signals, making authentic content appear synthetic and vice versa, highlighting the value of verification systems that are resilient to both technical and psychosocial manipulation. Finally, we outline techniques for delivering high-confidence provenance authentication, including directions for strengthening edge-device security using secure enclaves.

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