That's a good point. RAW is such a common format in the photography community but somewhat of a silly format for a generative AI to write to based on its file size.
Also, is generative AI capable of dramatically upscaling the quality of it's output relative to its input? I would assume so but I've never really thought about it.
I think it's pretty naive to think that AI tools wont soon be able to create/edit photos in RAW format that are impossible to detect. IMO, the only way to verify authenticity of stuff like this is to have hardware on the device (camera) which adds a signature/timestamp/etc to the data. This of course would require all devices to be in some sort of registry, which then becomes a privacy concern. It's gonna be a mess...
> IMO, the only way to verify authenticity of stuff like this is to have hardware on the device (camera) which adds a signature/timestamp/etc to the data.
The reason it's hard to fake RAW files isn't because one can't convert images to RAW files, but because RAW files contain lots of additional information that would be difficult to fake. For example, RAW files include mosaiced sensor data which has flaws that are unique to a particular sensor.¹ A digital forensics expert can evaluate a hundred aspects of RAW files to see if anything smells fishy.
Also, is generative AI capable of dramatically upscaling the quality of it's output relative to its input? I would assume so but I've never really thought about it.