Inria Prize

Teddy Furon: combating misinformation with digital tattoos

Date:

Changed on 26/11/2025

Research Director at Inria, Teddy Furon is known for his work on digital watermarking, which protects images, videos, audio files, etc. Deeply involved in industry transfers and co-founder of two start-ups, this committed scientist is now working to facilitate the detection of content produced by generative AI and ensure digital security. He has just received the Inria – Académie des sciences – Dassault Systèmes award.

"Working to ensure that my results are transferred to industry"

‘What matters to me is doing useful research, not pursuing academic pipe dreams,’ Teddy Furon states from the outset. ‘I work to ensure that my ideas are transferred to industry and give rise to products.’ " He has largely achieved his goal: the 51-year-old scientist, director of the Artishau project team at the Inria Centre at the University of Rennes, has already collaborated in various ways with companies such as Meta, Alcatel-Nokia, Thales, Technicolor and Facebook.

He is also co-founder and scientific advisor to two start-ups, Label4.ai and Imatag. The latter counts among its clients major global news agencies, including Reuters and Agence France Presse (AFP).

Pioneer of digital tattooing

Teddy Furon was one of the first researchers in France to study digital watermarking, beginning with his PhD in 1998. At the time, Pierre Duhamel, his thesis supervisor at Télécom Paris, warned him: "This is a brand new subject. Everyone may have forgotten about it in two years' time. You're taking a risk." The young researcher persisted in this direction, and rightly so. Today, this technology protects most of the content we view – DVDs, digital images, audio, videos, texts – and fuels a great deal of research.

This Inria prize, which involves a major industrial player, recognises the usefulness of my work and its potential to give rise to innovations. I am very pleased to receive it.

Unlike tattoos on the skin, which are meant to be seen, digital tattoos are hidden, which is why we are unaware of their existence. They are very discreet binary messages concealed in a file that enable it to be authenticated. "A good tattoo is invisible, robust – it can withstand cropping or image compression, for example – and contains a lot of information," explains Teddy Furon. "Meeting these three requirements is already a challenge."

Co-founder and scientific advisor to two start-ups

The researcher contributed to the maturation of the field, then multiplied innovations inspired by his collaborations with industry. For example, he is credited with the concept of tattoo security, which goes beyond simple robustness: this time, it is about resisting deliberate attacks. Another advance is ‘traitor tracking’, a term reminiscent of spy films: how can a unique and robust identifier be generated for each recipient when distributing a highly sensitive document in limited quantities?

Teddy Furon has such close ties with the industry that he took the plunge in 2015 by co-founding Imatag, a start-up specialising in image and video tattooing. It is headed by Mathieu Desoubeaux, one of his former research engineers at Inria.

Imatag has made a name for itself with its Monitor product, which allows press agency photographers to watermark their images so that they can be traced on European media websites where they are displayed, automatically triggering invoicing or the recovery of royalties. "Copyright is respected and professionals are fairly compensated. Whereas in the past, they had great difficulty knowing where and when their photos were published."

Detect AI-generated content for safe browsing

Long associated with the Linkmedia project team, Teddy Furon created a new one, Artishau, in early 2025. Digital watermarking still plays a key role, but now serves a new purpose: detecting AI-generated content. ‘From August 2026, the European AI Act will require AI providers to watermark their content distributed in Europe, "the researcher points out. ‘For me, it's also a democratic issue: I want my work to help identify deep fakes and combat disinformation."

This ambition led to the creation of his second start-up, Label4.ai, in 2024, of which he is co-founder and scientific advisor. It develops innovative solutions for discreetly and indelibly watermarking images, videos, sounds and texts produced by generative AI.

Users must be able to navigate the digital landscape safely, and citizens must be able to distinguish between what is true and what is false.

Imatag 

Imatag also contributes to this goal with metadata signing technology embedded in the Nikon cameras used by AFP photojournalists, enabling them to authenticate their images. During the 2024 US elections, for example, it was used to prove that Elon Musk's Nazi salute was not a deep fake. "The photographer thus becomes a trusted third party who helps us distinguish between what is real and what is fake."

Quick biography

  • 1994–1997: Agrégation in applied physics at the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan
  • 1998: DEA (Master's degree) at Telecom Paris
  • 1998–2002: CIFRE thesis at Telecom Paris/Thomson Multimedia
  • 2002: Joined Inria as a research fellow in the Temics team
  • 2015: co-founder of the start-up Imatag (online content protection)
  • 2022: research director at Inria, Linkmedia project team
  • 2024: co-founder of the start-up Label4.ai (identification of AI-generated content)

Is there a myth about the life of a researcher that you would like to debunk?

‘I am a public employee, and people often think I work 35 hours a week. In fact, I sometimes work 50 hours, like many of my colleagues! In this job, you have to conduct research, publish, participate in conferences, supervise PhD students, respond to calls for projects... It's exciting, but many days end very late.’

Find out more