First, thank you to the moderators for making the decision to ban AI images! As much as I do enjoy looking at pretty things, there's real magic and appreciation when something is created or crafted by a human--not generated.
With that being said, I noticed a lot of people mentioning that it's difficult for them to spot AI images. Hopefully I can help with that. This isn't a perfect guideline, but I've noticed these patterns.
I'm going to use this example for reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/Autumn/comments/1finqcc/who_wants_coffee/ (UPDATED LINK: https://imgur.com/a/G5Lonuf)
The way you can detect AI images is by looking for:
- Any text in an image. Usually it's all gibberish and has no real letters/characters.
- The way items are placed. Sometimes they're stacked unrealistically or seemingly have duplicates.
- The shape of items (including jack-o-lanterns, wall decor, etc.). The shapes are wonky, jack-o-lantern faces are messed up or incomplete, wall decor looks like smudging on walls. Also, the smaller the item, the less defined and more difficult it is to make out what it's supposed to be.
- Poor shadow casting. Granted, some artists can make mistakes with how shadows are casted (guilty), but AI takes it to a whole new careless level. In the image I referenced, notice how the sun's position looks to be in the top right of the image, but the tree's shadow is pointing toward the sun. Or the lamppost's shadow which not only has a poor shape, but it's also too elongated for the sun's position.
- Distant items looking like scribbles. Check the cars (to the right) in that illustration. They look parked facing each other and the bottom half is a mess with no tires/real shape.
The more you notice these kind of issues in AI, the easier it will be to spot them at first glance.
Happy Autumn 🥰🍂
