Lesson 118 · 2 min
Can you tell if it was made by AI?
There is no reliable test for AI-made text or images, so check where something came from instead of guessing how it was made.
Early AI pictures had six fingers and melting text. Newer tools fix most of that, and people who judge by eye now do little better than a coin toss on good fakes.
Detector websites for AI text are also unreliable. They often flag human writing as AI, especially from people writing in a second language, and they miss AI text that has been lightly edited.
Some companies add hidden watermarks or content credentials that record how an image was made. These help when they are present, but many tools do not add them and they can be stripped.
So ask the questions that still work: who posted this first, is it reported by a source you trust, and does anyone with a name stand behind it?
Do it now
Trace one viral picture
- 1. Find a striking image shared in a group chat this week.
- 2. Look for the first account or site that posted it.
- 3. Check whether a trusted news outlet or the people shown in it confirm it.
Quick check
Keep going
Next →QR code scamsWords from this lesson
- Watermarking
- Hiding an invisible signal in AI-made text, images or audio so software can later detect where it came from.
- Content credentials
- Tamper-evident labels attached to a photo or video that record where it came from and whether AI was used to make or edit it.
- Generative AI
- AI that produces new text, images, audio, video or code, rather than only sorting or scoring existing things.