Can digital watermarking protect us from generative AI?

The Biden White House recently enacted its latest executive order designed to establish a guiding framework for generative artificial intelligence development -- including content authentication and using digital watermarks to indicate when digital assets made by the Federal government are computer generated. Here's how it and similar copy protection technologies might help content creators more securely authenticate their online works in an age of generative AI misinformation. Analog watermarking techniques were first developed in Italy in 1282. Papermakers would implant thin wires into the paper mold, which would create almost imperceptibly thinner areas of the sheet which would become apparent when held up to a light. Not only were analog watermarks used to authenticate where and how a company's products were produced, the marks could also be leveraged to pass concealed, encoded messages.