Imagine scrolling through your social feed and stumbling upon an image that made you wonder, "Is this image AI-generated?" How do we recognize what is an AI-generated image and evaluate the source or authenticity of what we see? In this article, I've compiled a few tips and telltale signs to help you spot AI creations.
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What Are AI-Generated Images?
AI-generated images refer to any visual content produced or manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and algorithms. These clever algorithms are trained to create vibrant, eye-catching images based on text prompts.
AI-generated images can be found in all sorts of fields, including art, design, gaming, and even movies and simulations. Artists are using AI to generate fresh ideas, designers are whipping up concept designs, and game developers are bringing their worlds to life with characters and landscapes.
How to Identify AI-Generated Images
Detecting whether an image is computer-generated or not can be quite challenging, especially as the technology leaps forward. However, there are several indicators you can look for and clever techniques to help determine the authenticity of an image. How do we authenticate the content?
- Visual Clues: Use your good instinct and eyesight to spot anything that might look out of place, like body anomalies, unrealistic lighting, complex textures, surreal scenarios, illegible text, and weird artifacts.
- Check the Metadata: Examine the image metadata to reveal additional information, like the creation date, camera details, and technical information.
- Use AI Detection Tools: You can use online tools to analyze aspects of the image.
- Research and Check News/Events: Be skeptical. Do your research and check current, trustworthy media channels.
1. What Visual Clues Can Help Spot AI-Generated Images?
Learn to use your common sense and observational skills to spot AI visual errors.
Do You Spot Inconsistency, Blend, or Blur?
When it comes to creating balance or harmony in an image, AI struggles sometimes to make logical sense out of scenes and may exhibit unnatural detail. Zoom in on the scene and look for elements that are out of place. Pay attention to floating objects, blurry reflections, or objects that blend into one another.
If you look at this image of a gecko, you will notice the background is completely blurred out and some of the flowers in the foreground are also blurred. Plus, the flowers blend unnaturally and have less detail than the gecko itself.
This scene makes no sense. You will notice an irregularity in the moss and plants emerging from the shiny black marble flooring. Naturally, a scene like this, where clean marble flooring is in a dense forest, would never exist.
Any Unnatural Textures, Symmetry, and Patterns?
Be attentive to repetitive patterns in textures, overly smooth textures, and unusual or perfect symmetry, especially in backgrounds. AI tends to create unnatural repetition with complex textures like hair, fur, or fabric. Also, look for mismatched and pasted-like textures that are unlikely to appear in real-world photography.
Here, you can notice unnatural symmetry and texture in the feathers, as if they are glued together. Also, the background pattern is very messy and inconsistent.
Zoom in on the woman's hair texture, and see how frizzled and pixelated it is. Furthermore, the black and white background wallpaper is quite blurred and repeats the pattern on her turtleneck top.
Do You Notice Unusual Lighting or Shadows?
Be on the lookout for areas with unrealistic lighting effects or unnatural shadows that don't match the light source. Odd reflections, harsh cast shadows, and awkward angles of lighting can be high indicators of AI fabrication.
Gaze into the cat castle interior, and you will detect a lot of unnatural lighting coming from within.
In this scene, you can see harsh, unnatural light coming from within the herb-infused bottles, yet the nearby olives have a dark cast and irregular shadowing.
Notice Any Strange Anatomy or Body Distortions?
Common AI distortions can be found in images of people, animals, or crowded scenes. Check for things like facial asymmetry, extra fingers or limbs, warped elements, unnatural poses, smoothed skin, and oddly spaced teeth. If the subject appears staged or unrealistic, it's most probably an AI creation.
In this image there are so many bodily distortions, but the most noticeable is the woman's extra foot.
In the birthday scene, you can spot a lot of misshapen anatomy. The most obvious is the highlighted girl with the double face deformities.
Are There Missing Elements?
AI photos tend to have absent or incomplete elements, especially in crowded scenes.
Get close to the image and spot the woman with a missing hand, an incomplete book, and a mysterious object on her knee.
Zoom in and you can see that half of the chain is missing from the gorilla's necklace.
Is the Scene's Perspective Extreme or Unachievable?
Look for surreal scenes that defy physics or have uncommon camera angles. These could be impossible views that are difficult for a camera to capture or perspectives that are uncommon in natural photography.
Also remember that in the real world, photos have imperfections, like light rays, noise, lens flares, skin imperfections, and eye reflections, while AI photos tend to have minimum noise, smoothness, blurry textures, unrealistic detail, unusual viewpoints, and unnatural colors.
Observe the two images below. The scenes lack the imperfections of real photography, and the camera shots are irregular.
Can You Detect Strange Artifacts or Objects?
Some scenes may contain objects or artifacts that are nonexistent in the real world. This is a quick sign that machine learning was used to create the image. Search for warped shapes, elements blending into one another, or distortions in objects.
Examine the scene, and you will detect several unidentified objects.
In this farm animal birthday party, you can spot strange-looking additional hooves and a weird cake topping.
Does the Image Quality Look Too Perfect?
AI-generated photos tend to display a clean and detailed image quality that's almost perfect. When the image looks too immaculate and neat, with idealized features and unrealistic detail, that's a huge indicator that AI algorithms were used in its creation.
Do You See Excessive Use of Certain Colors?
The use of specific color tones, brilliant colors, or an abnormally rich color palette is also a hint that the image may have been created by AI.
Does the Scene Have Gibberish Text and Tangled Logos?
AI is incompetent at producing individual words, signs, or logos. Look at the picture and examine any text. AI-generated text tends to be blurred or pixelated, or it may contain some nonsensical phrases. Road signs, posters, labels, logos, or signage in a scene might have distorted elements, incorrect details, or tangled brand logos.
Browse the image and you will catch sight of some unreadable text.
The same goes for this image: the logos and text are warped and unidentifiable.
Does the Scene's Context Seem 'Off'?
Examine the context and assess the scene. For instance, in the image that went viral with the Pope wearing a puffed sports coat, would the Pope really wear a trendy puffer coat? It does appear to be out of character. Question why the image would exist. Is it being used to spread misinformation or for propaganda/political means? What is the benefit of sharing it, what do people stand to gain, and what emotions does the image bring out?
2. How to Use Metadata and Find the Source Information of an Image
How to Conduct a Metadata Analysis
To reveal clues on the origin of a photo or to see if an image is AI-generated, have a look at its metadata. There are many ways to inspect the metadata. One method is to right-click on the image file and select Properties or Get Info, depending on the operating system. There you can check the EXIF properties for the device model, dimensions, location, camera settings, exposure, creation date, and more.
If an image has been modified after its creation date, this may be a clue that it is not genuine, although not necessarily as the metadata can technically be deleted and altered. Some websites or platforms might strip the metadata of their images for privacy or security reasons.
Compare the AI image metadata here to the real image photography on the right. You will notice that on the AI image metadata, the normal camera specs are not present. Also, the dimensions of the image are standard AI generator size. Plus, the PNG format and descriptive title are typical of AI.
An example of metadata for real photos, shows camera model, exposure, flash, resolution, and more.
How to Reverse Image Search
Another method of verifying the origin of an image is to run the image through search engines like Google Images, TinEye, or Bing Image Search to check if it appears anywhere else online. These platforms allow you to paste an image URL, upload an image to discover the source, or track down similar visuals across the web. If it appears on noncredible websites or links to other AI-generated versions, then it's most probably AI-generated.
3. What Other Tools & Methods Are Used to Detect AI?
How to Use AI Image-Detection Tools
Many websites claim to detect AI-generated images, like AI or Not and Hugging Face. Although they offer some proof, they are still under development and are not quite accurate as they state.
How to Track and Detect AI Images
To identify AI-generated images and the spread of false information, Google has introduced a tool called About this image that can show where else an image can be found and where it first appeared.
Google has also developed a tool called SynthID that helps detect computer-generated images. SynthID embeds digital watermarks into AI-generated images, ensuring they can be identified.
How to Cross-Check the Image Source
Try to trace the image to different sources and cross-reference the credibility and reliability of these news articles, websites, platforms, or organizations. Websites like Snopes, FastCheck.org, and InVid Verification Plugin can help you investigate the accuracy of viral images, videos, and news on social media.
Remember to ask yourself: Where did you find the image? Why is it being shared? Does the source claim the image is AI-generated? Is it contradictory to other reliable information?
Do You Detect Watermarks or Signatures?
Some AI image generators apply watermarks. Look for hidden or discreet logos and watermarks, especially in the corners of an image, to check if the image is AI-generated.
4. Use the 'Is It AI?' Checklist
To simplify the process of identifying if an image is AI-generated, I've put together a questionnaire/checklist to help you pay attention to the subtle clues and some red flag indicators. When you're unsure about an image, go through the checklist to help you identify if the image is AI-generated or not.
1. Image Content and Composition
- Does the scene seem isolated, oddly staged, or lacking the sense of a natural environment or surroundings? AI generators sometimes lack the imperfections and inconsistencies found in natural grain photography. So keep an eye out for any dream-like image qualities or excessively smoothed scenes.
- Do you notice any unusual objects? Pay attention to odd objects, strange features, distortions, or unnatural blending in the scene.
- Does the scene have a lot of smoothed-out objects? Zoom in and examine the edges of the objects. See if you notice any unusual or excessive pixelation or smoothing.
- Does the scene portray an improbable scenario? Do the objects defy real-world physical laws of gravity, light, or motion? AI doesn't always understand our natural world, so it might generate objects that seem out of place or scenes that are physically implausible.
- Do the elements in the scene seem to belong to different historical periods or art styles? AI generators don't have historical accuracy or the ability to fixate on specific visual styles.
- Are there inconsistencies in the lighting, shadows, or reflections? Check for mismatched shadows, unnatural light sources, or shadows that are displaced in the scene. Make sure reflections are realistic.
- Are there any strange textures, patterns, or repetitions within the scene? Do the objects or patterns appear duplicated, repeated, or mirrored unnaturally? Are they artificial-looking or blurry, particularly in areas like hair, fur, or foliage?
- Are there unnatural details or awkward compositions in the scene? Do you see hyper-realistic textures or details that are out of place? Does the composition lack an organic flow or feel strangely imbalanced or symmetrical? Check for strange combinations of elements that wouldn't occur in reality.
- Can you spot any missing elements? Do areas of the image seem incomplete or have missing parts?
- Are any of the anatomical parts missing or distorted? Do the people appear deformed or blurred out? Is the anatomy in a normal pose? Are the faces, hands, and teeth distorted, blurred, or lacking details? Check for misshapen, missing, or extra fingers/hands. Are the eyes mismatched or missing pupils? Are the teeth aligned?
- Does the scene have an unnatural perspective or sense of depth? Do the proportions of the objects and people seem unbalanced? Analyze the perspective and depth of how the objects are positioned in their space. AI doesn't handle perspectives and sizes well, so check if anything appears unbalanced.
- Are the foreground and background elements properly integrated? Look for unfamiliar blends and interactions between subjects in the front and back of the scene. AI models often have trouble with depth of field.
- Do you notice any symmetry? AI-generated images sometimes present an unnatural symmetry.
- Is there any text or writing on the image? Inspect the image to find any anomalies in the text, as AI generators find realistic-looking text challenging.
- Does the image have a rich and unnatural color palette? Sometimes AI can focus on specific colors and use exaggerated saturation or unrealistic hues.
2. Technical Aspects
- Is the image resolution high or low?Are there elements that are blurry, pixelated, or excessively detailed? Look for conflicts in style, resolution, and quality. If you notice pixelation, it could be a consequence of image scaling.
- What is the size specification of the image? AI generators vary in resolution but most generate images that are in square format, whether it be 256x256, 512x512, 1024x1024, or 2048x2048. However, this is not foolproof as some AI generators allow you to customize the resolution size and offer upscaling options.
- What is the format of the image? PNG, JPEG, TIFF, or BMP are common formats of AI-generated images, although PSD and SVG are possible formats as well.
- Does the image have a signature or watermark? Inspect and keep a sharp eye on watermarks, as AI generators sometimes leave a watermark on their generated images.
3. Source Origin and Metadata
- Is the metadata questionable? Inspect the metadata to see if it lacks the EXIF information that is typical in photography, such as camera model, exposure settings, resolution, date, time, or GPS location.
- Where did you find the image? Is it from a known website or social media platform, or an anonymous source? Can you trace the image to a reputable source or photographer?
- Did you do a reverse image search? Use reverse image search tools like Google Images. Do other modified versions appear? Does the source mention or disclose that the image is AI-generated? It is important to do your research and cross-check the information.
- Who uploaded or shared the image? Is there any artist or creator credited? Is this artist known to work with AI-generated art or do they provide information about the image's origin?
- Did you try any online detection tools? Consider using any of the various tools designed to identify AI-generated images—Hugging Face, Google Vision AI, and others—but only rely on them as additional evidence and not as the only source of truth.
- Did you analyze the context in which the image is presented? For example, some social media profiles have few posts or lack personal information, which could be suspicious. Be aware of posts that seem contradictory or vague. Fact-check before believing or sharing content.
4. Emotional Response
- Does the image bring about a sense of uneasiness or eeriness, like something is 'off'? Follow your gut feeling—it's always a valuable indicator that something is wrong.
- Does the image tell a story or generate an emotional response or does it feel lifeless and artificial? Be wary of content that is harmful or offensive and can be used for malicious intent. If it triggers a negative response, then question what you see.
Keep an Eye on AI
AI technology continues to evolve, making it more difficult for us to detect. While there is no single indicator for AI images, try to familiarize yourself with the capabilities and limitations of AI image-generation tools. Remember to keep a sharp eye out, and don't jump to conclusions.
Simply combine the multiple methods we applied in the article, keep up to date with the latest developments and news, cross-check what you see, and rely on your common sense!
Check out more tutorials and articles on AI below.
