How You Can Tell if an Image is AI Generated

As artificial intelligence (AI) technology continues to advance, AI-generated images are becoming increasingly prevalent across various platforms and industries. From marketing and social media to entertainment and design, AI tools can now produce highly realistic visuals, often indistinguishable from those created by human artists. This growing use of AI-generated content has raised concerns about authenticity, with images being manipulated for misinformation, propaganda, or deceptive advertising. As a result, detecting AI-generated images has become an essential skill, helping individuals and organizations identify and address the potential risks posed by this rapidly evolving technology.

Now, were you able to tell that I created that introductory paragraph with AI, or did that sound too human?

Are you able to determine which of these images is AI?

Here are the telltale signs that an image was created with an AI, and we'll test your knowledge at the end.

1. Incorrect Body Autonomy

An easy first step in analyzing an image of a person is to look carefully at their body. In many cases, there will be errors like extra limbs, teeth overlapping, bodies that merge into their surroundings, extra long appendages, and non-circular pupils. The image is an example where the subject of the photo was given an extra hand.

In a case where you are investigating an image of a famous person, research other images and compare. You may find that adjustments have been made beyond Photoshop.

2. Image Quality and Detail

On an image created by AI, the subject of the picture will look more focused than a regular photo. In many cases, there will be an unnatural blur in the background of the photo or an inconsistent smoothness with parts of the background. The image above displays a couple of cheeseburgers on a table. However, the paper that the burger is displayed on seems to be merging into the table and blurred a little with the background. Additionally, the tomatos within both burgers seem to be melting like the cheese, which is unnatural for a tomato.

Overall, it is good to analyze the texture of an image to determine any inconsistencies by looking into the background and how focused the image is on the subject.

3. Misspelled Text

Although AI has come a long way in creating sentences, paragraphs, and essays, it struggles to create words within images. AI will often produce images with nonsense words within them. The image above is an example of an AI-generated image that is saturated with spelling errors, but others examples will be more subtle.

4. Functionality Anomalies

The type of AI that creates these images is not physical, at least not yet anyway. It doesn't interact with inanimate objects and people the way we do, so it doesn't understand the mechanics of how things operate. AI will generate images where objects or people are doing things that are impossible. The image above is AI-generated, as you could probably guess by the weird banner in the back and the glitchy and uncanny looks in their eyes. Did you also notice the way many of the tools in the front row are hanging? The wrench-looking thing is stabbed into the middle man's leg and the man to his left has a tool hanging from the center of his pants.

AI tends to focus most of its efforts on the main subject of the photo. If given the prompt to create an image of a group of construction workers posing in front of a banner, then that'll be its main focus. In determining whether or not an image is AI, you have to look at details that wouldn't be mentioned in the prompt. In other cases, you may find stairs leading nowhere, inacurate reflections in mirrors, weird shadows, and more.

5. AI Watermarks

Many AIs have a mark in the photo to indiciate that it is AI. The example provided here has Meta AI's logo on the bottom left corner.

If worse comes to worse, there are plenty of AI image detection websites online. A couple examples include aiornot.com and Winston AI, but more can be found with a quick Google search.

Back to the Beginning

With all of that in mind, let's scroll back to the beginning and look at the picture of the sunflower one more time.

Were you able to determine that the AI image is B?

The way the main flower of the photo is extra focused, along with the extra blur in the background, gives it away. Additionally, the flower almost unnaturally circular and the sun shining through the petals from an angle where the sun is covered by clouds. There are most likely lots of other clues to lead to this conclusion, but, I digress.

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Thank you for reading my piece. It has been a few eventful years since I have posted anything on here, and it was nice to lose myself to research and writing again.

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