To combat disinformation and fake news, Google is rolling out a new tool called “About this image”, which allows you to verify the origin of photos published on the Internet. An excellent initiative!
As global conflicts become more and more violent, like what is happening in Ukraine and Gaza, social networks are invaded by disinformation. Some Internet users do not hesitate to post images taken out of context or several years old in order to “illustrate” the wars currently taking place, brazenly lying about their origin. And that’s without counting generative AI which, more and more powerful, can create photorealistic photos capable of fooling more than one person! Suffice to say that with such a context, Google’s latest tool is timely! Called “About This Image,” it aims to provide essential, contextual information about images in Google Search, showing where they have appeared in the past across the web, as reported The Verge. A bit like what is already proposed for textual sources. Initially revealed at Google’s I/O developer conference last spring, the feature will gradually become available to users around the world, but only to English-speaking users at first.
About this image: a tool to combat misinformation
The About This Image tool aims to show the viewer the origins of a photo to provide essential context about how it has been described by news sites over time. So, it indicates the first time the image was indexed by Google Search, as well as metadata, which can indicate whether the image was generated by artificial intelligence. This function can be accessed through the three-dot menu from search results, and through Google Images. However, the company plans to make the tool available by right-clicking, long-pressing an image in Chrome, and dragging it “swipe up in the Google app when you’re on a page and come across an image you want to learn more about”. Please note, Google spokesperson Ned Adriance told The Verge that these new ways to access the tool were still under development and testing and would be released in the coming months. But contrary to what was announced earlier in the year, it does not seem possible to use the function from the image itself, through Google Lens.
In addition to this tool, Google is improving its Fact Check Explorer. The tool, launched in beta earlier this summer, allows people to search for image verifications by uploading a photo or using its URL. The Internet giant releases a new API to help aficionados of the fact-checking and journalists to integrate Explorer into more workflows. It also takes the opportunity to improve the Search Generative Experience, powered by AI, to provide more information about online sources. AI-generated descriptions will appear in the About This Result tool and are designed to fill gaps in existing sources, such as Wikipedia.