How to spot an AI generated image

If you were on Twitter earlier this year, you may have noticed a picture of Pope Francis with a particularly fashionable puffer jacket. A series of images swept the internet with millions of people talking about his style and re-sharing the story.

However, it never happened. The pope never wore the designer coat, in fact, the coat never existed in the first place. It was all AI.

This was arguably the first case of fake AI news fooling the masses. It was the perfect storm of humour, intrigue, and wackiness to go viral, but wasn’t important enough to be fact checked until it was too late. This posed a scary reality that we aren’t able to tell the difference between an AI and real photo anymore.

So how are you supposed to spot an AI generated image?

Spotting an AI generated image has become increasingly difficult. With the advancements of DALL-E, Midjourney and other AI image generators, mistakes commonly associated with an AI image are slowly being ironed out.

So today we’re going to take you through the main things to look out for in an AI image to prepare you for the incoming AI image apocalypse.

1. Look at the Hands and Teeth.

AI Images of people are arguably the most dangerous as they could be used to spread fake news or malicious images of someone. However as good as AI is, it still struggles with hands and teeth (for now). Look out for too many teeth or fingers as well as deformed hands. Always make sure you zoom in on the small intricate details, hands and teeth being the main tell-tale signs.

2. Strange Hair.

Ai also continues to struggle with hair on people, strands of hair appear from nowhere and there is a certain look about it where the hair looks stuck on through photoshop. This leaves an unrealistic look that makes deciphering an AI portrait much easier.

3. Surreal Parts.

When looking at an AI generated image, keep on the lookout for strange unrecognisable sections, such as the background of images looking more like textures than actual backgrounds. AI image generators generally focus on one main section of an image which leaves other sections less detailed and often surreal in their appearance.

This also happens when an image is too cluttered. With overly detailed creations, parts of the image will begin to morph or merge into one as the AI cannot handle all the information.

4. Using text to Spot an AI generated Image.

Another feature that AI has particular issue with is text. When looking at an image you think might be AI, check for text in the image, AI generators tend to produce gibberish instead of coherent, readable text. And even if the text is readable, the font is often wonky, unorganised, and clearly not real. For example, when asked to create logo for Genmar IT, what came back was:

Lastly, trust your instincts, if something about an image doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t. Ai images, despite their growing realness, still have a certain look about them that give us an idea of what is real and what isn’t.

To test your AI abilities, complete this quick AI quiz and see if you can correctly spot an AI generated image.

If you want to learn more about all things AI, tech and cyber security, head to our blog and check out our other posts – Blog – Genmar IT