The four methods, and what each one proves
Digital watermarking embeds a hidden signal inside a file, so a detector can later recognise it. It is good for tracing where your own content spreads and asserting ownership. Provenance standards, chiefly C2PA Content Credentials, attach a signed manifest that records how a file was created and edited, which is strong when every tool in the chain supports it and the manifest survives.
AI detection takes a finished file and estimates the probability that it was generated or edited, which makes it a fast screen over large volumes. Proof at capture takes a different route: it seals a photo or video the instant it is taken, binding the file to a fixed time and place, so the question becomes not what a model thinks but whether this exact capture is genuine.
Where each method stops
Watermarking only helps if the mark was added at creation and the detector recognises it, and robustness to edits, crops and screenshots varies, so an absent watermark proves nothing. Provenance is powerful but depends on adoption across the whole capture and edit pipeline, and the manifest is easily stripped: most platforms remove it on upload, so a genuine file often arrives with no credentials at all. You can read Content Credentials when present with Danaya's free tool, but their absence is not evidence of anything.
AI detection returns a probability, not proof, and it can be wrong in both directions as generators and detectors change, so it triages rather than decides. Proof at capture is the most definite, but it only applies where you control the moment of capture: it is not a retrofit that vouches for an arbitrary existing file, and in Danaya's case the GPS position is declarative, read from the capturing device.
Which one to use for your job
Use watermarking to track and claim ownership of content you publish. Use provenance when you run a professional pipeline where every tool supports C2PA and you need a documented edit history. Use AI detection as a first screen to triage a large flow of incoming files before a human looks closer. Use proof at capture when you need to prove that a specific photo or video someone takes for you is genuine, and when and where it was taken: claims, inspections, deliveries, returns, listings.
These combine well. A practical stack screens incoming files with detection, reads any Content Credentials that survived, and, for anything that matters, asks for the evidence to be captured live and sealed rather than uploaded. Danaya covers the last two: it reads Content Credentials and it seals media at capture with a SHA-256 fingerprint, a server timestamp and GPS, verifiable by anyone from a public link.