Using the blockchain to combat disinformation

We are in the midst of twin technology revolutions. Machine learning (such as AI) and decentralized computing (such as blockchain) have the potential to transform the world. These two technologies will intersect in various ways with one another, representing the next generation of the internet, and will reshape the tech sector over the next few decades.

There are enormous opportunities for the US – and the broader world – if we get this right. 

Responsible AI will re-imagine how the world engages with information by incorporating more powerful centralized and concentrated data-driven platforms, including by powering advances in science and medicine, expanding educational opportunities, and enhancing creativity. Responsible blockchain will give people the ability to control their own data within this world, including by using the underlying technology to update our financial system so it is more open and inclusive, preserving individual privacy, and enabling people to protect their intellectual property and more fully participate in the economic benefits of their work product.

From a national security and economic competitiveness perspective, the countries that lead in building the most flourishing ecosystem in these twin sectors will dominate tech, and it will be the values of these countries that animate the world. Blockchain technology, in particular, will be an effective tool for combating disinformation risks posed by AI. 

New Capabilities Bring New Risks 

On May 22 of this year, social media was in a frenzy over a picture showing a black cloud of smoke near the Pentagon. Reports quickly began to circulate that the U.S. was under attack; the Dow Jones dropped by 85 points as people around the globe scrambled to find more information.

But the reports and the image were fake. There was no such explosion at the Pentagon. The image was likely generated by artificial intelligence (“AI”) and, while the Pentagon and first responders quickly confirmed there was no threat, confusion continued to circulate on the internet throughout the course of the day. 

While one of the most salient, this instance of fake news driven by AI generated content did not happen in isolation. In the months since AI technology took society by storm, there have been a growing number of instances where AI’s deepfake capabilities were used by a variety of different actors. Some aimed to be humorous, like the viral image of Pope Francis in a puffy jacket. Others had malicious objectives, like a video of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky announcing his country’s surrender.

The reality is that for all its potential benefits, generative AI has the ability to supercharge disinformation in an age where it’s already difficult to tell fact from fake. The challenges we face today will only become greater as this technology advances. For example, generative AI is already being used for fake audio calls—and in the coming years will be used for video calls as well.  

AI-driven disinformation is particularly pernicious for matters of national security. The more AI dilutes trust in institutions and creates confusion about what is real, the harder it becomes for governments and the public to make informed decisions. Without accurate information, or with confusion about what is real, governments are increasingly exposed to national security risks. And at this level, one wrong decision can lead to economic damage, theft of critical intelligence, and exploitation by foreign adversaries, among other threats.

How Blockchain Can Help

Public and private sectors are both working to find ways to differentiate alarming security breaches from AI-generated images. An obvious solution to authentication is blockchain. The very notion of a blockchain as adopted by Satoshi Nakomoto for Bitcoin was actually invented in the 1990s by two cryptographers as a way of authenticating digital documents. 

Key characteristics that are inherent to the blockchain such as its transparency, immutability, and ease of access, make it an ideal tool with which we can authenticate the content we see online. One option is to leverage the blockchain's native use of cryptographic hashes. These are one-way mathematical functions that can take any type of digital data (like text or a photo) as an input and create a verifiable string of fixed length as the output. Storing hashes of important content on-chain creates an immutable record of its original form as well as a timestamp.

Hashes are great for creating "digital fingerprints" of content because the same input always yields the same output. Today, we can use a public blockchain like Bitcoin or Ethereum for this purpose. An additional layer or sidechain could be used by content producers to store hashes of their work, and web browsers could be upgraded with APIs that constantly check the authenticity of photos or text. Using this infrastructure, a content creator like a news outlet could cryptographically sign their work with their private key and readers can verify that signed work against the creator’s public key, which is stored on-chain.

Another path is turning content into NFTs, unique tokens that are stored on the blockchain and can be used to establish the provenance of images, videos, music, and other media. When an NFT is minted, it contains a unique identifier--either a pointer to content stored elsewhere or the content itself--and the initial owner. The blockchain acts as a transparent and permanent record of every transaction involving that NFT, which can be amplified more broadly across various forms of online content. Minting and transacting NFTs incurs fees, so this approach will likely only be used for the most sensitive content.

And blockchain can do more than authenticate how content was created – it also has the ability to track misinformation and how it spreads. Tracking AI-generated content across public blockchains is more feasible than tracking across siloed databases, which ultimately provides a valuable tool for fighting misinformation.   

Policy Approach

Governments around the world are now focused on rapidly developing AI regulation and policies. In May, the Biden administration announced a series of actions intended to mitigate the risks of AI while supporting its development via investments in research and development, public assessments, and policy development. In Europe, the European Parliament passed a draft law known as the AI Act that would restrict AI’s riskiest uses while allowing the technology to continue to develop more broadly.

 The pragmatic approach to any technology is to guide and encourage responsible growth while mitigating its risks. Involving industry in mapping out those risks and contemplating how to protect consumers is critical. Attempting to suffocate revolutionary technology through draconian policy would limit those benefits without effectively addressing its downsides, like a foreign adversary using it to incite violence or steal sensitive information.

This is of course also true with crypto. The move by some in the U.S. government to push the industry offshore potentially deprives the country of the multitude of growing use cases while hampering others like enabling decentralized identity solutions, securing personal data, and improving supply chain management. And we know that history and present day are both full of examples – from autos to the space race to semiconductors – of the U.S. leveraging technology to support our national security and preventing that same technology from being used against us.

The potential of the blockchain to mitigate the threat of generative AI-driven disinformation is just one way in which this technology supports U.S. national security. Others abound, whether by helping countries ensure a strong currency, tech sector, and prevent illicit finance or through securing defense supply chains, managing sensitive data, or maintaining the U.S. financial leadership role. To secure the U.S. we must enact smart crypto policy that encourages and guides the industry.

This is part of an ongoing series about the intersection of crypto and national security. Read part I, part II, and part III here.