Here is the man who wants to give us confidence in the press photo
Who better than Adobe can embody both good and evil in the image world? Honenned by some, who see photoshop the perfect tool for counterfeit images, blessed by photographers who rent the quality of Lightroom workflow, the software giant is an eternal tightrope walker.
Perhaps realizing that “A great power implies major responsibilities“, the company that makes the heart of digital photo beat has been working for several years for a major project for several years: to rebuild confidence in the press photo that image manipulation software has degraded. And we met the man in charge of this mission.
The verb is fast and fluid, the tone mastered: Andy Parsons is like its responsibility. Namely that he must embody the seriousness and benevolence of Adobe’s approach. Responsible for the development of CAI within Adobe, the American framework was present at the London conference of Adobe Max to present a safety and signature mechanism of digital works, Adobe Content Authenticity. A mechanism based on a larger and more ambitious program that wants to create a chain of trust in digital photography.
“”My job at Adobe is to integrate the tools of the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI, editor’s note) in our products“Explains Andy Parsons. Which reminds the complexity of the project.”Upstream of the CAI, there is the C2PA (Acronym of Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, NDR) which works under the aegis of Linux Foundation“. Founded by Microsoft and Adobe, the C2PA team also has heavy goods vehicles such as Sony, BBC, or Meta. It is she who is in charge of fundamental work, namely to create the technical specifications of digital protection mechanisms.
“”It was on this technical basis whose work started five years ago that CAI fulfills its role. Which is to design open-source software and tools on the one hand. And on the other hand, to bring together communities to promote the development and dissemination of these technological bricks“Explains the manager.
A project initiated by the needs of the press
The first spark of the project is Adobe and the New York Times that triggers it. The two companies wanted to develop a way to certify the photos and retrace their course in development in development (original metadata as well as all reframing operations, etc.) to combat false information.
“”At first, big media like the New York Times or the BBC wanted to find a way to guarantee the veracity of images, especially when they leave sites, when people share them on social networks in particular“, He recalls.
If journalistic needs give birth to the project, the theme of traceability and ownership of images accelerates the movement. “”In just five years, CAI has more than 4,000 members“, A. PARSONS.
With so many members and five years of existence, three of which are very active, we wonder where the image industry is? In view of the general public, not yet far enough: no big media site has yet integrated a complete image chain. The reason being simple: it all takes time. A lot of time.
Consensus: the strength and weakness of the standards
Andy Parsons, Senior Director Content Authenticity at the Adobe software publisher. © Adrian Branco for digital
“”We knew from the start that it would take time“says the manager.”For you, these five years seem an eternity. But bringing together so many people around the table so quickly, it is actually a success! A standard takes a long time to develop“says the specialist.
The first reason for this (relative) slowness is intrinsic to the approach. “”This incubation time is not weakness. It is even essential for the standard to work. Because for it to be adopted widely, it is not necessary to a company dominate all the others: it is necessary to create a consensus“, We detail A. Parsons.
“”At the very beginning, it is necessary to establish a dialogue between good companies, which are sometimes competing. And this dialogue, these conversations take time“. In addition to this dimension of the need for consensus to see the project to succeed, another aspect slows down the development of this standard. If developing software is a time -consuming task, designing hardware takes much more.
The cadence of the hardware is not that of the software
If you ask a seller to sell you a photo box equipped with the CAI protection mechanism, you may make white cabbage. Because CAI and its tools remain exotic, nebulous functions. It must be said that in addition to the fact that the operating tools (RAW development software, etc.) and dissemination are not yet ready, the reality is that Japanese industrialists really go there slowly on the implementation of these protective bricks.
“”On the one hand, it takes time to design and produce a camera“, Recalls Andy Parsons. But in addition to this dimension of planning, where you must have identified and integrated the right material components upstream, it is also necessary to take into account the eternal game of the cat and the mouse that represents the protective mechanics.
“”The CIPA (organization bringing together Japanese manufacturers of cameras, editor’s note) And the Japanese manufacturers of devices are very logically very cautious. They must pay attention to the safety of this integration. And they are dependent on other actors, such as Arm, who had to develop safety enclaves for processors“Explains A. Parsons.
A man who celebrates the exception embodied by Leica. Although much smaller than Japanese behemoths, the engineers of the German brand “have put a lot of energy and have made a lot of effort in the implementation of the CAI”. With Nikon and his Z9, the German Leica is indeed the first to have implemented this technology in its M11. But proof that the material planning is key in this implementation, the SL3-S released later, does not have it.
Open-source and free prerequisite
If the CAI now has more than 4000 members, it is also for a particular reason: the tools it disseminates are placed under a so-called open-or open-source license. That is to say that the code can be viewed, auditable (security) and integrable. And this, without royalties.
“It was essential for the success of the standard that the code was open-source,” says the specialist. As much for reasons of transparency of the code as for simple reasons for resources. Because if large groups can (more) easily set up teams, it is different for small teams.
“”Small organizations often do not have the resources, if only to have a person who will read and analyze the 200 pages of documentation of the standard“, Explains A. Parsons. Without pre-designed tools, transparent at the code level and free,”the norm could never have won such a traction“.
Is everything going to accelerate in 2025?
Announced in December 2020, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 smartphone processor is the first chip in history compatible with the CAI.
While the Samsung Galaxy S25 integrates the image protection mechanism thanks to the safety enclave of its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen X processor, the CAI movement is growing.
“”In addition to the photo, we also designed video tools to sign files by sections of 2 seconds“, We explained A. Parsons through a development platform. A demonstration in which, in a video editing, sections not respecting the protective mechanics (the elements were voluntarily elongated by generative IA) are marked in red.
A technology that, as for the photo, is in full development. And will take time to be integrated both in cameras, in mounting software and in distribution platforms. “”On the scale of the general public, I understand that it may seem long. But again, we are advancing rather quickly with regard to the classic development of standards“, Ensures A. Parsons.
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