Idle Friday question: has anyone explored using steganography for embedded watermarks in digital images? The problem with watermarks in present-day generative images is that they can easily be edited out. Stgnrphy hijacks the least-significant-bit in image data across the whole image to embed data.
Some immediate issues come to mind, so it would require a more sophisticated process to make sure the data can't be fully eliminated. But there might be something there. Or I could be tweaking on caffeine.
Consider what such a watermark provides:
1. a source signature validating the image (embedded data being a an encrypted hash value of the image, decrypted using public key of source.)
2. non-repudiation (yes, it *was* from this source)
The worst editting can do is make the result unverified.