Adobe and Leica's new camera combats misleading AI

When it come to AI, Adobe has made its commitment to ethics and content authenticity clear. From the appropriately named Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) to its decision to train Adobe Firefly only on commercially available Adobe stock images, the company has certainly taken some positive steps – and now it's going even further with the help of camera manufacturer Leica.

The two brands have launched the Leica M11-P, the first camera to feature built-in content credentials, creating a link between the image (and further iterations of it) and the camera itself. It's a major step forward for Adobe's CAI, particularly against the exponential rise of AI-generated art, and the potential for misinformation it brings with it.

Designed to "deliver authenticity at the point of capture", the camera could help pioneer widespread adoption of content credentials. "With manipulated content and misinformation more on the rise than ever, trust in the digital ecosystem has never been more critical," Adobe announces in a new blog post. "We are entering a new era of creativity, where generative AI is expanding access to powerful new workflows and unleashing our most imaginative ideas. The Leica M11-P launch will advance the CAI’s goal of empowering photographers everywhere to attach Content Credentials to their images at the point of capture, creating a chain of authenticity from camera to cloud and enabling photographers to maintain a degree of control over their art, story and context."

Each image carries information such as camera make and model, as well as content-specific information including who captured an image and when, and how they did so. Each image captured will receive a digital signature, and the authenticity of images can be easily verified by visiting https://contentcredentials.org/verify or in the Leica FOTOS app.

As for specs, the M11-P features an LCD monitor made of sapphire crystal glass with an anti-reflection protective coating, a 60 MP BSI CMOS sensor, the high-performance Maestro-III processor and 256 GB of internal memory. It starts at £8000 and is available to order from Leica's website.