{"id":33507,"date":"2025-08-30T21:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T21:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/33507\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T21:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T21:00:14","slug":"ai-experts-reveal-how-to-spot-generated-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/33507\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Experts Reveal How to Spot Generated Content"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor tens of millions of people on TikTok<\/a>, the realization that AI might be getting better wasn\u2019t a press release or an article\u00a0\u2014 it was a video of a dozen bunnies jumping on a trampoline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe clip<\/a>, first posted by an unknown TikTok account @rachelthecatlovers, showed a herd of bunnies descending on a suburban trampoline late at night, captioned \u201cJust checked the home security cam and\u2026 I think we\u2019ve got guest performers out back!\u201d Surveillance-style videos already make up a major lane of content on the app, but what got the 230 million people who viewed it was that the video was convincing\u2026 almost. So many people were shocked that this AI video had tricked them \u2014 for even a moment \u2014\u00a0that it set off a wave<\/a> of alarm<\/a> across the app.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe internet has come a long way since the most widely recognized test for AI was producing a convincing video of Will Smith eating a bowl of spaghetti<\/a> \u2014 something the earliest of models simply couldn\u2019t do. Now, with AI generated or modified photos and videos flooding social media, knowing how to spot altered or manipulated images can be the key to critical media consumption.<\/p>\n

\n\tRolling Stone spoke to several tech and AI experts about the best ways to spot AI content \u2014 at least for now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tThink for literally more than one second<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

\n\tManipulated or completely AI generated images can run the gamut from political misinformation to almost undetectable video edits. But according to Princeton University computer science professor Zhuang Liu, one of the easiest ways to detect AI images is just by thinking if what you\u2019re seeing is actually possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf it\u2019s not plausible in the real world, then it\u2019s obviously AI generated,\u201d he tells Rolling Stone. \u201cFor example, a horse on the moon or a chair made of avocado. So these are obviously AI generated. That\u2019s the easiest case.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe next step is to check the source where you found the image. This doesn\u2019t necessarily work for viral content, especially since they often come from previously unknown accounts, but seeing a video on a meme page could be a clue it\u2019s not real. Checking your sources, including searching for the video on legitimate sites, or using reverse image search, can help if you\u2019re trying to verify a photo, especially if it\u2019s of a political nature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\t\tPut your art-critic hat on<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAccurately identifying AI slop can be easy. But when an image or video seems plausible \u2014 that\u2019s when you\u2019ve really got to use other clues to try and spot AI. V.S. Subrahmanian, director of the Northwestern University Security and AI Lab, tells Rolling Stone that determining whether an image is AI generated starts with breaking down a photo into components. While the end result might seem believable, there are often clues that objects in a photo aren\u2019t abiding by the rules of physics. Things like shadows can often be a hint that a photo was made by AI, or videos where the light source seems impossible to obtain. Another big hint is to clearly look at transitions in the photo, like where people\u2019s bodies end and trees or background images begin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re looking for things that are hard for a deep fake to get quite right,\u201d he says. \u201cSay I\u2019m looking at a person\u2019s ear and there\u2019s a cluttered background behind it. AI doesn\u2019t always realize that an ear has a sharp boundary. It has a clear end. So when it generates fakes, there might be blurring there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNew York University computer science professor Saining Xie adds that this kind of critical thinking can be done to videos as well. \u201cLook for really odd details. Check for unnatural writing,\u201d he says. \u201cIf there\u2019s a mirror [or] water, sometimes there\u2019s a distorted reflection, a mismatched shadow. Pause at different frames and look for glitches, distorted faces, and backgrounds.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\t\tThink about manipulation, not just AI generation<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile fully AI generated content can be a problem, many people don\u2019t consider that some images may be manipulated instead of created whole-cloth, which can make fakes look all the more real. One of the best examples of this is in political messaging and misinformation, which can often use real video clips but replace the audio\u00a0\u2014 or keep the verified audio while slightly changing what people are doing on-screen. These micro-adjustments can be harder to spot, which is why experts say you should look for videos from multiple angles, but most importantly, be skeptical.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMaintain a critical-thinking mindset,\u201d Liu says. \u201cVerify whether the source is trustworthy and think, \u2018What could be the intent of the entity who is sharing this? Is it to gain followers on social media, or is to promote some products?\u2019 Be clear of the intent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re actively in a post-truth era. And we need to change our mindsets that seeing is believing,\u201d Xie adds. \u201cFor the average internet user, the default should be skepticism.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tUnderstand the bigger problem<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAs tech companies continue to invest billions into AI advancements, it\u2019s abundantly clear that there might easily be a future where it becomes incredibly difficult to identify AI generated images from real photographs and videos. On Aug. 27, Google released a major upgrade to its Gemini AI photo editor, which Google has advertised as having a sophisticated rendering ability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIdentifying [AI] is getting harder and harder,\u201d Xie says. \u201cIf you asked me yesterday, I\u2019d give you a different answer. But now, the Google model has advanced to a new level. So many of these viral inspection tools might not be valid anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is where public perception ends and corporate responsibility begins. All of the experts who spoke to Rolling Stone say that the companies behind these massively successful models have a responsibility to develop watermarking techniques that explicitly state when images were made with their models.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis type of authentication has to be done from this kind of image editing, the generation-provider side as well,\u201d Xie says. \u201cMany image generation providers don\u2019t have this service. But I think going forward, people will care more about responsibility and safety, and [companies] will add more safeguards. I\u2019m quite optimistic about that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLiu notes that while the average consumer has been worried about identifying AI images, many companies have developed AI models that can accurately identify when an image has been generated or manipulated \u2014 but many aren\u2019t available to the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSubrahmanian agrees that tech companies have a responsibility to identify and label their AI creations. But he notes that even with changes across the board, it wouldn\u2019t apply to people who use their own or newer developed models. \u201c I think the number of tech firms that are putting out algorithms to create deep fakes are actually starting to put in watermarks,\u201d Subrahmanian. \u201cBut [malignant] actors can pick that kind of stuff up, and that\u2019s much harder to regulate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tThere\u2019s no good answer about how to keep the floodgates of the internet holding strong against the waves of AI images. There will be another plague of bunnies on trampolines that send apps into a panic, or a video of a political figure that convinces people on the fringes of something completely implausible. But while these developments continue, the strongest thing the average person has to combat against AI is their own critical thinking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt the end of the day, a lot of the stuff that you\u2019re seeing has been created by strangers, and you need to treat it with the same skepticism that you would treat an overt request for money from some unknown person,\u201d Subrahmanian says. \u201cCommon sense is a vastly underrated resource.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n