Artificial intelligence has come a long way from answering simple questions and recommending playlists. Today, it can create lifelike images out of thin air everything from fake photos to made-up events that look like they actually happened. These AI-generated images are so realistic that it’s getting harder to tell what’s real and what’s not.
AI image tools like Midjourney, DALL·E, and Stable Diffusion are trained on millions of real photos. They learn patterns how lighting works, how faces are shaped, what backgrounds usually look like and then use that knowledge to build new images from scratch. The results often look just right at first glance.
The human cortex exists for the fastest recognition of a face, an object, a pattern. This works great most of the time, but it also means that the brain often provides supplemental information when detail is missing. If it looks real enough, the brain is willing to suspend disbelief without asking too many questions. That’s what makes AI images so believable, even when they’re riddled with little errors.
Even the latest and greatest AI tools make mistakes every once in a while. Here’s how to spot them: -
Hands are tough for AI to get right. Look for too many fingers, fingers that bend in strange directions, or hands that don’t seem to match the rest of the body.
AI often has trouble keeping eyes the same size or properly aligned. Glasses might look glued onto the face, or the lenses might not reflect light like real ones should.
Light and shadows should follow a clear direction. If a face is lit from one side but the shadows fall the other way, something’s off.
AI can’t read or write well. Words on signs, t-shirts, or books in the background often look like gibberish or get misspelled in weird ways.
Make notes of what is happening in the background. AI images are sometimes melting buildings or blurry crowds or nonsensical objects.
AI-generated portraits can appear unnaturally perfect. Skin can look airbrushed, with none of the signs of life, no pores, no blemishes, no natural texture.