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An AI provenance check should report the evidence it found, not force every file into an “AI” or “not AI” verdict. A useful design separates signal discovery, credential validation, signer trust, and interpretation. If evidence is absent, unsupported, or incomplete, the result may be “not detected” or “unknown”—neither means the asset was made by a person.
What an AI provenance check can establish
Provenance is evidence about a digital asset’s origin and history. C2PA Content Credentials can carry assertions about how content was created or modified, including AI use. A credential is cryptographically bound to the asset so a verifier can check whether the credential is associated with that asset and whether its signature or binding passes validation under the verifier’s rules. C2PA Specification 2.2 describes validation; the C2PA explainer describes what provenance can and cannot establish.
A passing check is bounded evidence, not a truth test. It does not prove that every assertion is factually accurate, that the person or organization named by a credential is trustworthy, or that an image or video depicts events as they happened. C2PA’s stated aim is to assess whether assertions can be validated as associated with the asset, correctly formed, and free from tampering—not to judge whether they are “good” or “bad.”
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That distinction matters when someone asks whether provenance can determine if an image or video depicts the truth. Provenance can help establish a record of origin and changes; it cannot, by itself, establish whether the content is true, accurate, or factual. Those questions require evidence beyond the credential.
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Give each stage its own result
Do not compress different questions into a single “AI” badge. Record the outcome at each stage, then explain what the combined evidence supports.
| Stage | What it checks | Useful result states |
|---|---|---|
| Signal discovery | Whether the checker found a signal or credential format it knows how to inspect. | Found; not found; unsupported; scan could not complete. |
| Credential validation | Whether a present credential’s structure, signature, and asset binding pass the implemented validation checks. | Valid; invalid; not present; unknown or unsupported. Use the status vocabulary supported by the implementation. |
| Signer trust | Whether the signer meets the configured trust list or policy. | Trusted under the stated policy; not trusted under that policy; not assessed. |
| Interpretation | What the credential’s assertions say about origin or edits, and what those assertions do not establish. | A plain-language account of the recorded provenance, with its limits. |
| Coverage | Which file types and signal families were actually checked, and relevant blind spots. | A scope note naming the supported formats, providers, or signals. |
The table is a design model, not a mandated C2PA status vocabulary. Match labels to the standards and signals your implementation actually supports. In particular, a valid cryptographic signature and a trusted signer are separate findings: validity concerns the credential’s integrity and association with the asset, while trust depends on a policy or trust list.
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Use “not detected” and “unknown” precisely
Not detected
Use “not detected” when a scan completed but found no supported signal within its stated scope. It means only that the checker did not find what it knows how to detect. The credential may have been stripped, a watermark may have been degraded, the asset may come from a legacy workflow without signals, or the creator may use a provider outside the checker’s coverage.
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Unknown
Use “unknown” when the available evidence does not support a reliable conclusion—for example, when a credential contains an unsupported construct, a scan is incomplete, or a signal is present but cannot be interpreted by the implementation. Preserve the reason so a reader can tell whether the issue was format support, missing data, or a failed scan.
Unknown is a meaningful outcome, not an error to hide or a prompt to guess. C2PA includes unknown-provenance status codes for unsupported constructs. Do not silently map an unknown result, an absent credential, or missing signer credentials to either human or AI authorship.
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Invalid is not the same as absent
If a credential is present but fails a validation check, report that separately from “not present.” An invalid credential is evidence of a validation failure; absence means no credential was found. Neither outcome, by itself, establishes whether AI was used or whether the content is true.
Make coverage visible to the reader
Every result should say what the checker examined. Name supported asset types and signal families, identify provider-specific scope, and distinguish “scan completed with no supported signal” from “scan could not complete.” Avoid broad labels such as “AI detector” if the implementation only checks certain credentials or watermarks.
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For example, OpenAI’s documented content provenance API checks images and audio for supported OpenAI C2PA and SynthID signals. It is not a general-purpose detector for every AI system. Consult the OpenAI content provenance guide and create content provenance check reference for the API’s documented scope. A result from that API should therefore describe the supported signals checked, not claim that no AI system produced the file.
Likewise, C2PA is an opt-in standard, not a universal requirement for creators, platforms, or editing software. An asset without Content Credentials is not thereby shown to be human-made.
Account for editing, sharing, and metadata loss
Provenance can be incomplete or removed as an asset moves through tools and services. The C2PA explainer notes that editing software that is not provenance-aware may leave the provenance record unupdated, and metadata can be removed. C2PA’s approach to durable credentials can combine hard bindings with soft bindings such as watermarking and fingerprinting, but no binding should be described as guaranteed to survive every edit, conversion, or sharing route.
When a signal disappears, report what is observable now rather than infer a past event. “No credential found in this file” is supportable; “the creator removed the credential” is not, unless there is separate evidence for that claim.
What to show in a result
- Scan outcome: whether the scan completed, and whether supported signals were found.
- Credential state: whether a credential was present and, if so, whether its validation passed, failed, or could not be assessed.
- Signer assessment: the applicable trust policy and its outcome, kept separate from signature validity.
- Provenance interpretation: a concise account of what the recorded assertions say, without presenting them as proof of depicted truth.
- Coverage note: the file types and signals checked, plus any important unsupported formats or providers.
A reader-facing result might say: “No supported provenance signal was detected in this image. This check covers [supported signal scope] and cannot determine whether the image was made with AI.” If the scan cannot interpret a credential, say that it was found but is unsupported rather than displaying a clean “no signal” result. Keep any template variables inside code when implementing examples in documentation.
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