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One solution to the multi-trillion-dollar counterfeit goods problem may be as simple as pointing your phone’s camera at, say, a watch or a handbag and letting smart software determine its authenticity. FeaturePrint, an optical AI technology, first “sees” miniscule surface details of physical items and “fingerprints” them into unique mathematical identities. Then, it can tell you whether an item is fake or genuine with a click of a button. “No stickers, tags, or markers needed,” says Alitheon CEO Roei Ganzarski. One customer is Argor-Heraeus, which makes gold bars for national banks.

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