How to Detect AI-Generated Images

Start with the credential, not your eyes

If you want a trustworthy answer to “was this image made by AI?”, the best place to look is a Content Credential (C2PA manifest) — not your gut feeling. Many images produced by mainstream generators and cameras now carry a signed manifest that records who created the file, which tool was used, and what edits were applied.

You can check any image in seconds:

Open the C2PA Verifier.
Drop in the image (or paste its URL).
Read the manifest: creator, tool, edit history, and whether generative AI was involved.

If a valid credential is present, that is the strongest evidence available. If there is none, the image is not proven human-made either — absence of a credential only means no provenance was attached, which is still the default for most of the web.

Look for invisible watermarks

Some generators embed an invisible watermark (for example Google’s SynthID) directly into the pixels or latent space. These are detectable by matching software even after screenshots or light edits, but they are not universal and can be removed by heavy cropping, re-encoding, or re-generation. A verifier that checks for both C2PA credentials and known watermark schemes gives you broader coverage.

Visual clues (use with caution)

Human eyes are unreliable on their own, but a few patterns are worth a second look:

Hands and fingers — extra, fused, or oddly bent fingers are a classic artifact.
Text and typography — gibberish letters, wrong fonts, or signs that don’t spell real words.
Symmetry and repetition — duplicated windows, teeth, or jewelry.
Lighting and reflections — inconsistent shadows or mirrors that don’t match the scene.
Background detail — smooth “plastic” skin or melted architecture.

Treat these as hints, not proof. Good generators produce far fewer of them, and real photos can also look odd.

Practical checklist

Best case: a C2PA credential confirms provenance end-to-end.
Second best: a detectable invisible watermark suggests AI origin.
No signal: the image is unverified — don’t claim it’s real or fake based on looks alone.
Corroborate: reverse-image search the file to find its first appearance and original source.

Why this matters

As generators improve, visual “tells” disappear. Provenance — a signed record attached to the file — is the only scalable way to know where an image came from. That is exactly what Content Credentials were built for.