It's true because you saw it with your own eyes. And a picture is worth a thousand words.
Well, if those sayings were ever true, they won't be true long.
Images and videos generated by AI are poised to take over the world. Any jokester with time on his hands is going to be able to generate a reasonable facsimile of a person doing something, probably a bad something.
Recently an image of Pope Francis went viral, showing the pope wearing a trendy Balenciaga puffer coat — a garment that can run up to $4,000. In the picture, the coat seemed to be tailored with a wide belt, the kind you see on the pope's robes. It was an AI generation, of course.
On X (formerly Twitter), the image was quickly identified as fake, but how could they tell?
With current AI images, the details can get skewed. Look at hands, eyes, skin, and light for giveaways, according to National Geographic.
In the eyes, the reflection in each eye should be identical and the pupils should be round. There should be the right number of fingers and hands should hold something naturally. In the case of the pope's picture, he was holding a paper coffee cup by the tab on the lid.
AI currently has problems with rendering light, shadow, and coping with how gravity affects items. In the fake pope picture, he wore a cross that seemed to defy gravity a bit, standing out from his coat.
But, beware, these errors won't be a problem for AI for every long. It will improve exponentially. The best bet for scoping out fake pictures? Don't believe your eyes.
