In today’s digital era, where information travels faster and authenticity is often questioned, image verification is a great tool to use. With the proliferation of smartphones and social media, images have become the universal language for conveying stories and messages. However, this also opens the door to misinformation, deepfakes, and manipulated images that can lead people falling victim to scams.
With the rise of AI tools, the dangers have increased. In our Facts About Fiction column this week, we tell you how you can identify fake images.
Reverse image search
The first step to identify the authenticity of an image is through reverse image search. Reverse image search uses picture as a query instead of text. This can be done either through Google Lens application on the smartphones or even through the browser on a laptop or computer. Same can be done by using the ‘Yandex’ search engine. Reverse image search tells us if the image was used earlier on other social media platforms or articles. This clarifies the context in which the image is being used and shared.
However, if reverse image search doesn’t throw up any results, describe the picture using keywords on Google search engine and use this as a query. For example, if the picture shows a cat, describe what the cat is doing in the picture and hope for the best results, to find the image.
AI image detectors
If you suspect that the image is generated using AI, use AI image detectors such as, Hive Moderation, Optic AI or Not and Maybe’s AI Art Detector.
Most Read
Bigg Boss Tamil 7: Here’s the list of contestant set to enter Kamal Haasan show
Priyamani says ‘half the scenes in The Family Man were improvised’ by Manoj Bajpayee, but Shah Rukh Khan sticks to the script
Read more aboout AI generated images and their identification here.
Google Bard
One of the interesting things about Google’s experimental, conversational AI chat service, Google Bard is that it can give results about images too, if you search them in the prompt section and ask questions about the same. For example, you can insert a picture and ask ‘tell me more about the picture?’ or ‘Where was this taken?’ Give precise prompts in order to get correct suggestions. And then using the clues, find out more about the pictures.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/TAL-main-pool-andronis-arcadia-santorini-FAMANDRONIS0923-233447bdf1c34a55aa4634fe2c9186dd.jpg)
