5 best ways to identify images generated by AI from Midjourney, DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion, and more

Images generated by AI have become a hot topic in the tech scene over the past few months thanks to popular tools like Midjourney, DALL E-2, Stable Diffiusion, and more. They work based on a single prompt text and the output pictures look stunning. However, there's a problem: as these image-generating tools get more realistic, it is becoming incredibly hard to tell original human-generated content from those designed by these software tools.

The gap is closing with each passing minute. As such, there isn't any surefire way to conclusively remark whether a picture was designed by a human or machine. However, as it stands right now, there are some particular loopholes that you can use.

Do note that these workarounds aren't perfect and will largely be left to your discretion — what you feel like could be the source of the imagery.

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It is becoming extremely hard to tell AI from human

With all the risks that originality faces today, artificial intelligence-based content detection has become a hotly debated topic. The technology is processing rapidly with the final goal of becoming as human-like as possible. This further creates problems in multiple fields and departments across the workforce.

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1) Look for inconsistencies in the image

Artificial intelligence-generated imagery isn't sound. Since the underlying models are based on large chunks of data and not how the real world works (unlike humans), they can mess up small details.

For an instance, it is common for an image-generating tool to mess up the numbers and positions of windows in a building. Same goes for environments and backgrounds. If anything feels illogical in an image, it is likely generated by artificial intelligence.

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2) If the image has a human subject, check the hands

Portraying human subjects is generally quite difficult because of the insane complexity involved with one. Neural-image models frequently mess up human portraits. While some have gotten superb at generating faces, most of them mess up one key body part: the hands.

We have noticed most tools mess up the fingers. So, if a human subject has four fingers, or seven, or eight, it is likely generated using artificial intelligence-based tools. Be aware of spoofs, though. Some artists might draw human figures with a ton of fingers to portray an underlying meaning.

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3) Check for any watermarks

Some AI image-generator tools understand the issue with originality and deep fakes. Thus, they watermark any image generated by them. In addition, some tools watermark images generated using their free plan.

If an image has a watermark, check whether it belongs to an image-generator tool. If the answer is a yes, it will save you a ton of time and effort in trying to figure out it's source.

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4) Double-check any text in the image

AI-based image generators have one weak point: they suck at generating text. Any text appearing in any form of imagery they come up with is either unreadable or just a blurry bunch of pixels.

Thus, if you can spot any such inconsistent blocks of text anywhere in a picture, it likely was an image generator's work.

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5) Use an AI-generated image detector

Sometimes, an image can appear so perfect that it may become impossible to tell its source. This is why some clever developers have come up with neural-image detectors. Since most image-generating tools are based on a similar underlying DNA, it is pretty easy for those with access to the code behind to use machine learning to figure whether a human or a software designed it.

Some of the best image detectors are Optic, Hugging Face, Hivemorderation, Illumiarty, etc. Do note that recent reports suggest these tools can be easily fooled, which is concerning about the future of originality.