Researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created CHARCHA ( Computer Human Assessment for Recreating Characters with Human Actions), a secure and personalized verification protocol that allows an individual’s likeness to appear in generative video content. The team was inspired to create CHARCHA to respond to ethical issues in generative AI, such as unauthorized deepfakes.

“When we realized how easy it was to scrape data from the internet and create realistic AI content without consent, we knew we wanted to develop a safeguard,” said Mehul Agarwal, co-lead researcher and 2024 Master’s of Machine Learning student at CMU. “ We are reacting to the growing ability of malicious actors to misuse generative AI and trying to stay ahead of the curve.”

Mehul worked closely with his sister Gauri Agarwal, Associate Professor Jean Oh and several supporting team members who all provided key insights that helped shape CHARCHA’s real-time authentication process.