Ex-AP Photo Head Reveals Future of Content Transparency at Xposure 2025

Photo: Dubai Government Media Office

At the 9th International Photography Festival (Xposure), Santiago Lyon, a well-known photojournalist and former war photographer, gave an insightful talk on how the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) is helping to restore trust in digital media. Lyon, who is now working at Adobe as the Head of Advocacy and Education for CAI, shared his experience in photojournalism and discussed how the initiative is tackling the global issue of misinformation in a world that’s becoming more uncertain, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

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Lyon’s talk started with some personal stories from his long career. “I spent 20 years as a photojournalist, covering nine wars in four different continents. Then, I worked for nearly 15 years as the Director of Photography at the Associated Press, where I supervised around 1000 photographers worldwide. We produced about a million images every year, all of them truthful and honest representations of the world,” he said.

Now at Adobe, Lyon is focused on the growing problem of how generative AI is affecting the way we see and trust media. He shared an example of an AI-generated image of Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket, which fooled him for a moment. “At first, I thought it might be real. A progressive Pope in Vatican City, close to Rome, the fashion capital – it seemed believable. But it wasn’t true,” he admitted. “If I can be tricked, imagine how easy it is for someone who’s not as familiar with these things.”

Lyon explained that AI is making it harder to trust digital media, with deepfakes and AI-generated images blurring the lines between fact and fiction. This, he said, has created what some people call the "liar’s dividend." It means that when people can fake something, it makes others doubt everything, even when it's real.

This is where the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) comes in. CAI was created in late 2019 by Adobe and has now grown to include over 4,000 members, such as Reuters, AFP, Microsoft, Getty Images, and even camera companies like Nikon. The goal of CAI is to provide “content provenance,” which means verifying the origins and history of a digital file. Lyon described CAI’s mission as “proving what things are, rather than just detecting what’s false.”

One of the most important features of CAI is the focus on provenance, which means understanding the basic facts about where a piece of content came from, how it was created, and if it was edited in any way. This helps people who see the content make better decisions about whether they can trust it or not.

Lyon also introduced the "CR" icon, which is part of CAI’s new system of content credentials. This icon shows that there is additional information about the content, such as whether an image was created with Adobe’s Firefly AI tool or edited in Photoshop. Users can click on the CR icon to get more details about the image, including its origins and any edits made to it.

The CAI has formed partnerships with camera brands like Leica and AI companies like OpenAI and Adobe Firefly to include content credentials in digital media. Even social media platforms like TikTok have joined the CAI and the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).

Lyon shared a proud moment when he mentioned that Time Magazine had recognized CAI’s efforts, calling it one of the best implementations of the year.

What makes CAI different is its open and inclusive approach. Everything they do is open-source, which means that other companies, even competitors of Adobe, can use it to help bring more transparency and authenticity to digital content. The goal is to make sure that anyone can trust what they see online and know where it came from.

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