How to prove a digital archive copy is authentic
To prove a digital copy is authentic, keep an unbroken record from the original to the file. Archives do this with fixity checks (checksums recorded at ingest and checked over time), preservation metadata such as PREMIS, and an OAIS-style repository. That proves authenticity inside the institution. Once an image leaves your website, a viewer has no way to check it, and fake archival photos and AI-made copies of famous works circulate widely.
The Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) by The AI Lab extends that record to the public. Sign each scan, photograph or digital object under the institution's verified organization TIP-ID as it enters the collection, and label AI-assisted transcriptions or restorations honestly. Anyone who finds a copy online can check it against the signed record for free and see whether it matches.
The problem
Where archival content gets faked
| Where | What goes wrong |
|---|---|
| Historical photos | Fake or colorized images are shared as genuine archive material, often with invented captions. |
| Open access images | Free collections are copied, altered and resold, and authentic copies are hard to tell from altered ones. |
| Documents and records | Altered or invented archival documents are used to support false claims. |
| AI-assisted transcription and restoration | Useful work that readers need labeled, so they know what the machine did. |
Every option, honestly
What each option does, and where it stops
These work together. Use more than one, and read the last column for each, including ours.
| Option | What it does | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|
| Fixity checks and preservation metadata (PREMIS) | Prove a file has not changed inside the repository. | Live inside the institution, so the public cannot check them. |
| Web archives (Internet Archive Wayback Machine) | Capture web pages at a point in time. | Capture pages, not the provenance of each object. |
| C2PA Content Credentials | Attach signed provenance data to new files. | Rarely available for digitized legacy material, and easily stripped. |
| Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) by The AI Lab | Signs each digital object under the institution's verified TIP-ID with a date, an origin label and a fingerprint, checkable by anyone for free. | Proves where the digital copy came from and that it is unchanged. It does not prove the physical original is genuine. |
Step by step
How to put it in place, in order
- Get an organization TIP-ID for the institution.
- Add TIP signing to your digitization workflow, alongside your existing fixity checks.
- Sign high-traffic and often-faked items first, then the rest of the collection over time.
- Label AI-assisted transcriptions, translations and restorations as AI-Assisted.
- Show the record link on each item page and in your image download terms.
About TIP
What the Trust Identity Protocol is
The Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) is an open standard from The AI Lab for proving who made a piece of content and whether it has changed. A person or organization is verified once by an accredited Verification Provider and gets a TIP-ID. Each time they sign something, their own device signs it with a post-quantum signature (ML-DSA-65, NIST FIPS 204) after a fresh fingerprint or Face ID, and the TIP Network records the signature, the time, an origin label and a fingerprint of the content. Anyone can check a record for free, with no account.
TIP does not detect deepfakes, does not stop copying and does not decide whether content is true. It proves who stands behind a piece of content and whether a copy matches the original. It is governed in the open by the AI Trust Council, and the specification is public on GitHub. Signed content is called a Verifiable Asset.
Questions
Questions people ask
How can I tell if a historical photo is real?
Find its source. Reverse image search can lead to the holding archive, and the archive's catalog shows the original and its caption. If the archive signs its collection on the Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) by The AI Lab, the record shows the authentic copy and whether the image you found matches it.
How is TIP different from a checksum?
A checksum proves a file is identical, byte for byte, inside your systems. TIP adds a public, signed record tied to your verified institution, and a perceptual fingerprint that can recognize a resized or recompressed copy of the same image.
Can museums and libraries use TIP free?
Nonprofit museums, libraries, archives and government institutions use TIP free at any size, and checking any record is free for everyone.
Should AI-assisted transcriptions be labeled?
Yes. AI transcription and restoration make collections far more usable. Labeling that work AI-Assisted tells researchers what was done by a machine, which keeps the collection trustworthy.
What is the Trust Identity Protocol?
The Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) is an open standard from The AI Lab for proving who made a piece of content and whether it has changed. A person or organization is verified once by an accredited Verification Provider and gets a TIP-ID. Each time they sign something, their own device signs it with a post-quantum signature, and the TIP Network records who signed it, when, how it was made (Original Human, AI-Assisted, AI-Generated or Mixed) and a fingerprint of the content. Anyone can check the record for free.
Other use cases
Where else TIP helps
- Hiring and recruiting
- Students and academic integrity
- Certificates and credentials
- Insurance claims
- Freight and logistics
- Newsrooms and journalism
- Research publishing
- Creators and creator platforms
- Banks and finance teams
- Agencies, brands and marketing
- Referral, rewards and marketplaces
- All use cases