Skip to Main Content
     

A Guide to... AI in Scholarship: Identifying AI-Generated Content

Detecting AI Generated Content

Strategies for Identifying AI Generated Content

Reverse Image Search

If you suspect an image to be AI-generated, try a reverse image search to see if you can find the original source of the image. Reverse image searches can be conducted using tools like...

In Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, you can also search an image found on the web by right-clicking and then selecting "Search image on the web" or "Search image with Google," respectively. 

Note that many of these tolls will not show you image results in chronological order. You may need to scroll through several pages of results to find the earliest appearance of the image online. 

Detecting Altered Images

You can use free analysis tools such as the ones below to detect digital altering or otherwise 'faked' images (though note that these are imperfect tools!).

But don't underestimate the value of your own observation skills! Silly as it sounds, checking for details that don't make sense (including: missing fingers, body proportions that aren't quite right, blurring that is visible only upon zooming in, nonsense text in signs etc.) is another way that you can catch artificially-generated images. 

This can also be done in combination with the reverse image searching strategies above -- for example, try conducting a reverse image search of only parts of the image, perhaps images showing distinct natural or architectural features, to see if they exist and if they match the location the image is 'supposed' to represent. 

The suggestions in this box are credited to Twitter/X user @Shayan86 and his useful threads: 

And to: