Content provenance, i.e. the origin or source of an image or video file, has crossed an important threshold this month. In Europe, the EU is now applying transparency requirements to AI-generated and manipulated content via Article 50, while in the US, California has simultaneously brought its own AI Transparency Act into operation. Being regulatory acts, the language of each is mostly technology-neutral. However, for the video technology industry, it suggests all roads lead to one particular technology movement—C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity). Regulators are demanding that outputs from generative AI systems be marked with machine-readable provenance. Yet neither the EU AI Act nor California’s AI Transparency Act mandates C2PA by name, while Article 50 states that providers of…