Real or AI?
© Dave Benett—Dave Benett Collection/Getty Images
This photo of actors Zendaya and Tom Holland is real. But wedding photos of the couple were generated by artificial intelligence.
Actor Zendaya doesn’t share much about her private life. That’s why it was surprising when photos of her wedding to actor Tom Holland appeared online. The wedding looked beautiful, and Zendaya said her friends complimented her on how the photos came out. There was only one problem—the photos weren’t real. They had been made by artificial intelligence (AI).
“Many people have been fooled by them,” Zendaya told late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. “People were like, ‘Your wedding photos are gorgeous.’ And I was like, ‘Babe, they’re AI. They’re not real.’”
It’s a common mistake. AI technology is so good at making fake photos and videos that we often can’t tell they aren’t real. Some online tools are designed to help users decide whether an image was created by AI. But these tools don’t always get it right.
© Brian/stock.adobe.com
It’s not hard to tell that this image is fake, even without the “AI Generated” label. Other images are trickier.
So how can you tell when photos and videos are real? Here are a few tips.
- Study the details. If the photo shows a person, do their fingers look right? Are their ears the same shape as in other photos? Does the face look like the person, or are a few features different?
- Study the words. AI isn’t very good at adding words to a photo, such as on a street sign. Sometimes the words will be misspelled or won’t make sense.
- Study the background. If a famous person is shown in a setting that seems unrealistic, the photo may be fake. Did Ariana Grande really pose for a photo with flamingos?
- Study the crispness. Notice if a video seems a little blurry, or if the person’s voice and mouth movements don’t match. If so, the video may have been made by AI.
- Use reverse image search. Google and other search engines can do a “reverse image search.” This lets you upload the image to learn who created it and where else it is being used. If the image is being used by trustworthy websites like the Associated Press or Britannica, it’s probably real. But if not, it may be fake.
AI is getting cleverer. But so far, there are still ways to keep ahead of it!
