A series of videos have recently surfaced depicting people, mostly women, angry and devastated over cuts in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits at grocery stores and restaurants. These videos have been shared thousands of times as a way to shame the people in them for their bad behavior, while also perpetuating stereotypes about who benefits from SNAP.
Comments are pouring in, pleading with the women in the video to get jobs and stop relying on government aid to feed their children. The only problem is that the women aren’t real. These videos are generated using Sora and other artificial intelligence (AI) apps that allow users to create realistic AI videos with simple instructions and a few clicks. While some people were able to quickly identify the problematic videos as AI, many were unable to do so.
As AI technology continues to improve, it’s becoming more difficult to identify whether a video or photo is real or not, but there are some simple pieces of evidence that people can spot.
1. Their skin has no texture.
No one has perfect skin, except in computer-generated depictions of humans. Everyone else has texture, age spots, fine lines, or bags under their eyes. The reason is that humans are sometimes rough and it shows on their faces. Some people may see acne scars or freckles that aren’t perfectly placed, or a bad night’s sleep. Additionally, people tend to move their faces throughout their lives, which can lead to smile lines and crow’s feet wrinkles caused by squinting. We also have pores.
If a person’s skin in a photo or video doesn’t seem to have depth, texture, or other imperfections, that person may not be a person at all. According to the BBC, “AI images often lack the detail found in real photographs, making them look ‘airbrushed’.”
Portrait of a woman in a quiet and natural environment.Photo credit: Canva (AI generated)
2. That word is not a word at all
This is often overlooked due to brand awareness. The AI โโuses a familiar logo and tricks your brain, which knows what the logo says, into creating words around it. However, it takes a few extra seconds to read the words in images and videos. This is because when the words are generated by AI, the words become gibberish. It’s a meaningless collection of random letters and symbols.
Interview in the supermarket aisle.Photo credit: Canva (AI generated)
3. Look for meaningless anomalies
Of course, humans are born with all sorts of abnormalities, but these are usually differences that we are used to seeing. These can be things like a small extra finger on the side of someone’s hand or one leg being a little shorter than the other. But when AI creates a full-body photo, something big but easily overlooked is almost always out of place, like the human leg growing out of the dog’s neck in the family photo below. Or a hand that looks like a woman’s attached to a man’s arm is facing the completely wrong direction, and the other hand looks normal.
Discrepancies in photos and videos can be easily overlooked when viewed from a distance or at first glance, so take some time to check.
Group hug with your furry friends at the park! ๐ถ๐ธPhoto credit: Canva (AI generated)
4. Things get mixed up or blurred.
One of the drawbacks of AI is that it blurs people’s mouths when they speak. The lips and sometimes the tongue may appear blurry, pixelated, or slightly disappear.
Sarah Kimmel of Family Tech Zone told KSL News Utah, “The AI is having a really hard time, especially with the hands and transitions. So my shirt ends here, but in the AI image it blends more into the background. It would be futile, my belt would blend into the shirt, my hair would blend into the background, so I would have to be careful about those sharp edges, and also whether the photo would be possible. So I have these beds on the side of a cliff. โHow do I get to that bed?โ That image is impossible, it was generated by AI. โ
5. Slightly out of sync
This isn’t just about what AI-generated people will notice with their mouths when they’re speaking, but other things will be a little different as well. A video of someone taking a bath may show the water running just before the person gets to the bathtub, or after they have already left. You may hear the door close just before the person closes it.
6. Feeling inexplicably uncomfortable.
Humans are wired to connect with other humans, even through a screen. When you see a computer pretending to be human, a little alarm bell may go off in your head or stomach that something is wrong. No one knows what it is, but our bodies often give us clues that the video you’re watching is “not ours.” Hopefully, we won’t have to walk around like characters in “Among Us” any time soon.
Ruben Circelli pc mug “Listen carefully to the audio in the video, paying particular attention to timbre, which is a characteristic of sound that has nothing to do with pitch or volume. AI-generated audio in particular often has a vaguely robotic timbre. And even if you can’t explain exactly why the sound sounds strange, it’s usually easy to tell when something is wrong.”
7. Original source is sketchy
If all else fails, if something doesn’t seem right, you can take a screenshot of the video or photo and do a reverse Google image search. This is useful for viewing the source of content. If it’s AI, you could end up at a dead end or be redirected to a social media page that only contains other videos or images that also look inappropriate.
Visiting the source before purchasing anything from an online ad can also save you frustration. People may also use AI to generate products, so searching for products by typing company names like Barbie or Levi’s into your browser is one way to avoid being fooled by AI.
Critical thinking is central to identifying AI content. By looking critically at the content in front of you, you can prevent yourself from sharing something that is inaccurate. AI videos are meant to be used for fun, but some bad actors are using them to spread misinformation and stir up anger and fear. In the age of AI, it’s important to slow down and do a quick internet search for videos to see if reliable sources discuss it, or look for some of these simple perks.
