The Japanese electronics firm Sony has launched a brand new characteristic that enables creators to personal “digital start certificates” for images captured with Sony cameras. The brand new characteristic mirrors the core ideas behind NFTs and their underlying blockchain expertise.
The characteristic was introduced on the ongoing Sony CES 2024 occasion in Las Vegas. Included with the Sony digicam’s {hardware}, the characteristic will entail the creation of a machine-based digital signature. Pictures and video captured with a Sony digicam can now be uniquely tracked and verified utilizing this new perform.
The brand new performance permits photojournalists and different creators to retain the authenticity of their content material. It additionally helps to fight the rise in deep fakes, which entails utilizing synthetic intelligence (AI) to control photos, movies, and audio to create pretend and convincing outputs. Reiterating this truth, Sony Electronics’ president and COO, Neal Manowitz, stated on the occasion:
“Whereas the speedy evolution of generative AI (Synthetic Intelligence) brings new prospects for artistic expression, it has additionally led to rising concern in regards to the affect of altered or manipulated imagery in journalism. The dissemination of false info and pictures has real-world social affect that brings hurt not solely to our photojournalist and information company companions however to society as an entire.”
Sony added in its announcement that the brand new characteristic will roll out in a firmware replace for its Alpha 9 III, Alpha 1, and Alpha 7S III digicam fashions this 12 months.
Admittedly, Sony didn’t explicitly liken its newly launched characteristic to NFTs. Nonetheless, the performance resembles that of an NFT, serving as digital proof of authenticity for an merchandise.
However, Sony has beforehand proven its curiosity in NFTs by registering for a patent that permits avid gamers to switch NFTs inside the gaming verse. Time will inform if photojournalists and different customers of the characteristic will in some way incorporate non-fungibility into the narrative.
