Two years ago, it was easy. An AI-generated image gave itself away: six fingers on one hand, unreadable text on a sign, ears melting into hair.
These tips are still doing the rounds everywhere. They no longer work.
Today's tools produce perfect hands, legible text and flawless lighting. Looking for the detail that's off is looking for a needle that no longer exists.
You need to change your method. Instead of looking at the image, you look at everything around it.
Reflex 1: where it really comes from
A photo in circulation always has a first owner. Find them.
Do a reverse image search: your search engine usually has a camera icon that lets you search with an image instead of words. You'll see where it first appeared, and whether it already existed before the event it's supposed to show.
Many fake images are in fact real old photos, taken out of context. That alone is enough to unmask them.
Reflex 2: does it please you too much?
This is the most important reflex, and the hardest.
Ask yourself an honest question: does this image confirm exactly what I already thought? Does it make me angry at people I already dislike?
If so, be suspicious. Images fabricated to deceive aren't made at random: they're made to provoke a strong emotion, because a strong emotion makes you want to share before you check.
Reflex 3: where are the other photos?
A real event, especially an important one, is photographed by lots of different people, from lots of different angles.
If only one image exists of an event that should have drawn hundreds of phones, that's a warning sign. Reality leaves plenty of traces. An invention leaves only one.
Click on the account that posted the image. How long has it existed? What does it usually post? An account created two weeks ago, posting nothing but shocking images on a single subject, doesn't have the same credibility as an established news outlet or an identifiable photographer. It takes ten seconds and settles a lot of cases.
Reflex 5: look for the signature
A new technology is starting to spread: "content credentials". Some cameras, software and platforms can now sign an image at the moment it is created, a bit like an official stamp.
On some sites, a small icon lets you see this signature: which device took the photo, when, and whether it has been modified.
Watch out for the trap: a signed image proves something. An unsigned image proves nothing at all. The absence of a signature doesn't mean it's fake — most real photos don't have one yet.
The most important thing
You will never be able to spot every fake image with the naked eye. Nobody can any more, not even the experts.
So the right question is no longer "is this image real?". It's "who is showing me this, and why?".
And if you're in doubt, there's one reflex that works every time: don't share it. A fake image only has power if it circulates. You can be the end of the chain.