Fox Corp. blockchain protocol tracks content use by large AI developers

U.S. media giant Fox Corp. (NASDAQ: FOXA) has launched a blockchain-based platform to assist media outlets in tracking their content online.

Dubbed Verify, the blockchain protocol developed by Fox Corp.’s in-house technology team is primarily targeted at tracking the use of intellectual property (IP) by large artificial intelligence (AI) developers in training their models.

Designed as a distributed database, Verify uses a cryptographic signature to identify the origin and provenance of a piece of content, utilizing Polygon for its underlying architecture.

Media outlets signed up on Verify may upload their content for verification, reserving the right to grant usage rights to AI developers seeking to use their content in training large language models (LLMs) that support AI platforms. Fox Corp. CTO Melody Hildebrandt disclosed that the firm has rolled out integrations to support the onboarding of third-party publishers to submit their content to Verify seamlessly.

Hildebrandt revealed that creators and media companies can use Verify to track a particular content’s ownership and copyright status in a move designed to promote transparency.

“Verify is powered by the content graph, where content is hashed and cryptographically signed, binding it to its verified owner,” read the project’s website. “Using smart contract licenses, the content graph allows for permissionless access control, unlocking novel digital rights management between content owners and platforms, app builders, and other publishers.”

In mid-2023, Fox Corp. rolled out a beta version of Verify, testing the waters with Fox News’ coverage of the Republican primary presidential debate. The initial warm reception of Verify has seen it authenticate the origin and history of over 70,000 pieces of content, cutting across the Fox brand.

The next hurdle for the company will be to onboard other mainstream news and media outlets to the platform, but experts are predicting an uphill climb. They cite the difficulty of blockchain-based projects outside of decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to attract widespread adoption as one of the challenges standing against Verify.

Standing up to large AI firms

Media houses like The New York Times are hitting back at AI firms for failing to seek direct approval before using their intellectual property to train LLMs, sparking a flurry of negotiations between AI developers and firms.

Fox Corp. remarked that Verify can assist media outlets in their negotiations with AI developers, shifting the pendulum in favor of creators. In other news, OpenAI has reportedly opened negotiations with Fox Corp. and CNN to use their content to train ChatGPT for accurate and up-to-date responses.

In order for projects involving AI to succeed, they need a scalable public blockchain to mitigate many of the potential issues associated with AI’s transparency and security. The time-stamped records on scalable public blockchains can help prove the origins and authenticity of the data on which large language models (LLMs) were trained. This is especially important for ensuring that the models are ethically sourced. In addition, using public blockchains can prevent AI models from relying on a centralized network like Ethereum—which Polygon supports—that may not be scalable and pose a higher risk of getting hacked.

With a record of 128 million transactions in 24 hours last year, BSV is the only viable blockchain that has proven to scale unboundedly. It is the only public blockchain capable of handling the massive data management needs of media outlets, enterprises, and governments.

In order for artificial intelligence (AI) to work right within the law and thrive in the face of growing challenges, it needs to integrate an enterprise blockchain system that ensures data input quality and ownership—allowing it to keep data safe while also guaranteeing the immutability of data. Check out CoinGeek’s coverage on this emerging tech to learn more why Enterprise blockchain will be the backbone of AI.

Watch IEEE COINS Conference: Intersection of AI & blockchain