How to Tell If an Image Is AI Generated
Image generators fool the eye, but files often tell the truth. Check Content Credentials, IPTC AI labels and hidden prompts, then the visual clues that still work.
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- How do you tell if an image is AI generated? It has become one of the most common questions online, because today's image generators produce pictures that are hard to spot by eye. No single test works every time, but a few checks done in the right order settle most real cases. This guide covers the metadata that can show where an image came from, the visual clues that still help, and the limits of each.
- Start with the file, not your eyes
- The strongest evidence is often stored inside the image file rather than in its pixels. Three kinds of metadata matter.
- Content Credentials (C2PA)
- Content Credentials are a signed record of where an image came from and how it was edited, built on the open C2PA standard from the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. AI image tools including Adobe Firefly and OpenAI's image generation attach Content Credentials to the pictures they create, and some newer cameras and phones sign real photos the same way. The record usually names the app that produced the file, known as the claim generator.
- The IPTC digital source type
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