Content provenance
Content provenance is a verifiable record of where a piece of content came from — who or what created it, when, and how it has changed since. For AI-generated content, it usually takes the form of a cryptographic signature applied at the moment of generation that anyone can independently verify later.
Why it matters
As AI-generated images, audio, text, and video become indistinguishable from human-made content at a glance, the useful question is no longer "is this AI?" but "can you prove who made it, when, and with what system?" Provenance answers that question with cryptography rather than guesswork.
Provenance vs. detection
Detection tools attempt to classify content as AI-generated based on statistical artifacts. They are inherently probabilistic and produce both false positives and false negatives. Provenance, by contrast, verifies a signed claim of origin: when a valid signature is present, the origin is established; when it is absent, nothing is concluded about how the content was made.
How Certivu implements it
Certivu treats the cryptographic signature — produced with the post-quantum ML-DSA algorithm — as the source of truth. It adds an invisible watermark plus perceptual-hash and acoustic fingerprint fallbacks so provenance can survive common transformations such as resizing, recompression, and re-uploading. No content is stored; only hashes and records are kept. Verification is free and requires no account.
FAQ
What is content provenance?
Content provenance is a verifiable record of a piece of content's origin — who or what created it, when, and how. For AI-generated content, provenance typically means a cryptographic signature attached at generation time that anyone can later verify.
Is content provenance the same as AI detection?
No. Provenance verifies a signed claim of origin when one exists. AI detection tries to guess whether content is machine-generated from the artifact alone. Provenance is verifiable and precise; detection is probabilistic. The absence of provenance does not mean content is human-made.
How does Certivu establish content provenance?
Certivu signs content with a post-quantum ML-DSA key at generation time, stores a provenance record (hashes only, never the content), and embeds an opaque token plus a resilient watermark or fingerprint. Anyone can verify the result for free.