Adobe debuts ‘nutrition label’ icon for AI-generated imagery

Adobe is rolling out an icon that denotes AI-generated content, it announced during its Adobe Max conference on Tuesday.

The watermark, called Content Credentials, consists of a small icon embedded in a piece of content’s metadata. It features the letters “CR,” and, when hovered over, displays a dropdown menu that details information about the content, like who created it and which AI tools were used. Adobe compared it to the “nutrition labels” on food and beverages.

Adobe said some blue-chip brands have already signed on to use the symbol, including Microsoft, which will incorporate it into Bing Image Creator. Some in the ad industry have agreed to use it as well; Publicis adopted it for client work across its agencies.

“We see a future where consumers will see the icon…and habitually check for Content Credentials just like they look for nutrition labels on food,” Andy Parsons, senior director of the Content Authenticity Initiative at Adobe, said in a blog post.

Adobe belongs to various groups advocating for content transparency, including the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, an org that’s working to create technical standards to verify the sources and origins of media content. In addition to Adobe, Intel, Microsoft, and Sony are part of the coalition, as are the BBC and Publicis.

Adobe also helped found the Content Authenticity Initiative, whose several dozen members include NPR, the National Geographic Society, and Axel Springer (Morning Brew’s parent company), as well as holding companies such as Omnicom, Dentsu, and Publicis. This organization promotes an “open industry standard” that can help people determine if an image or video was created or altered using AI.

Additionally, Adobe is one of several tech companies that agreed to AI safeguards the Biden administration proposed earlier this year. In releasing an AI watermark, Adobe follows the likes of Google, which recently created its own marker for AI-generated content.

“We expect the new icon will be so widely adopted that it is universally expected, and one day soon become as ubiquitous and recognizable as the copyright symbol,” Parsons said in the blog post.