AI-generated images flood the Internet: how to distinguish them from real ones

The ability to use artificial intelligence services has only recently become available to the general population. However, this time was enough for the Internet to be flooded with AI-generated photo and video content, often of dubious quality. This was reported by SSPDaily.

"A significant part of it," Ktar News reports, "is images of celebrities advertising products and services of unknown companies. However, even without advertising, AI products are everywhere because it is easy and simple to create them."

And since it is unlikely to stop this process, we have to learn to distinguish images created by neural networks from the real ones. Here are a few signs to look for.

Perfect symmetry

Artificial intelligence takes symmetry to a new level. In some cases, everything looks unnaturally balanced - to the point where an image can be folded in half and it will be perfectly mirrored on both sides. This is especially true for landscape and close-up photos.

Distortion

As a rule, images produced by artificial intelligence have large and small errors or distortions. Take a closer look at the faces in a crowd in a picture taken by AI and you'll likely find that they are blurry and look strange.

Disproportion

AI doesn't always understand what proportions are, so some objects may appear too big or too small. For example, cars that are as tall as a house or doorways that are too small to fit through.

Shadows and lights

Real-world photos follow the laws of physics well, but does AI know them? Not necessarily. That's why shadows can scatter in all directions in images created by neural networks.

Unnatural textures

Images created by artificial intelligence often appear too smooth, without natural textures and color variations. Or, on the contrary, they contain hyperrealism with unnatural detail.

This is especially true for portraits with wrinkles, pores, and age spots, which are subtle and not noticeable in normal images.

Watermarks

Most free AI image generators include watermarks on their products. Usually, they are located in the lower right corner in the form of a logo or text pointing to a website or app.

Oddities

Despite the fact that artificial intelligence continues to improve, this process is far from over. That's why people's faces and body parts may have unusual shapes, and hands may be missing fingers.

Free tools to determine the origin of images

If you have any doubts about the origin of an image, you can use free tools to determine it. They are not perfect, but still. For example, this is AI or Not or Maybe's AI Art Detector.

Don't forget about reverse image search on Google. If its search engine returns the same image from reliable sources, then it is most likely authentic. But if it directs you to a website with artificial intelligence, you should think twice.