Content Authenticity in Digital Collections

Digital repositories are facing an approaching crisis: digital objects increasingly circulate without institutional context, while rapid advances in generative AI make it difficult for users to distinguish authentic content from altered material. Approaches that attempt to detect AI-generated content are unreliable and will soon be obsolete. Repositories must prepare for the shift from users asking “how can we tell this is fake?” to “how can we tell this is real?” This poster showcases Northwestern University Libraries’ exploration of Content Credentials, an emerging content authenticity infrastructure based on the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity standards, as a proactive strategy for asserting authenticity and provenance.