2.1 The Rise of Synthetic Media

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• Video manipulation tools can create convincing deepfakes

These capabilities will only increase in sophistication, accessibility, and output quality over time.

2.2 Impacts on Digital Trust

The consequences of this shift are far-reaching:

• Information Integrity: News, documentation, and evidence face questions of authenticity
• Economic Impact: Fraudulent documents can facilitate financial crimes and identity theft
• Institutional Trust: Public confidence in media, education, and governance systems erodes
• Personal Privacy: Individuals face risks of impersonation and misrepresentation
• Legal Challenges: Courts and regulatory bodies struggle with digital evidence verification

2.3 Limitations of Current Solutions

Existing approaches to content verification face significant limitations:

• Watermarking: Can be removed or degraded, and requires platform implementation
• Metadata Solutions: Can be stripped or modified during normal file operations
• Platform Verification: Creates dependency on specific companies or services
• AI Detection: Faces an inherent arms race with generation technologies
• Centralized Registries: Create single points of failure and censorship vectors

These limitations highlight the need for a fundamentally different approach to content verification.