Here is a tiny peek at a piece of innocuous tech found in my new novel, Artificial. In the novel, this small piece of tech has big implications. In our real nonfiction world, deep fake AI video and image editing is everywhere and so easy to use. So why not use it to lie about what you are selling? Journalists have reported how people are using these AI tools to make the homes they are selling look better than they do in reality.

So why not also use AI to make the results of that magical skin cream look even more magical, or the food at that restaurant look more mouthwatering, or that outdoor event that was a dud look like it had 100,000 cheering fans instead of a half-full soccer field of half-asleep people? Soon, it will be the exception that online videos and images are 100% real.

In Artificial, deep fake imagery is combatted by something called RealSeal. When a video or photo is captured, it is digitally encrypted and signed by RealSeal code. This makes it impossible to alter the file without breaking the seal. In my novel, any image or video seen online that does not have a RealSeal is immediately suspect because you know it has been altered in some way.

In our real nonfiction world, RealSeal is based on simple technology that has been in use for decades. Lots of computer files are digitally encrypted and signed to ensure their integrity. In Artificial, this RealSeal function is built into every photo app, viewer, and camera.

To work effectively, this kind of simple technology has to be built into both the tools used to capture the imagery and the tools used to view it. If RealSeal was available in real life, it could crush the burgeoning deep fake tsunami of visual propaganda that is heading our way.