Friend Suggestion Holding Paper

What we analyzed

We classified this image as likely human-made with 98% confidence.

How Is It AI? classifies images

Is It AI? uses deep-learning models trained on millions of labeled images, spanning both camera-captured photographs and outputs from contemporary generators like Midjourney, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, Nano Banana, Flux, and others. The models analyze each image for pixel-level artifacts, frequency-domain noise patterns, and generator-specific signatures that the human eye typically misses.

The result is a probabilistic detection signal, not absolute proof. For high-stakes decisions like newsroom verification, fraud investigation, or evidence review, combine it with source verification, metadata review, reverse image search, and human judgement.

Common signs of human-made images

Camera-captured photographs tend to carry physical fingerprints that AI models still struggle to reproduce. Common cues:

• Natural skin texture with visible pores, fine asymmetry, and stray hairs
• Consistent lighting, shadows, and reflections that match a single light source
• Lens-specific artifacts: chromatic aberration, vignetting, sensor noise
• Sharpness that falls off with depth-of-field, not uniformly across the frame
• EXIF metadata that survived (when available) showing camera, lens, and capture date

These are heuristics, not guarantees. A skilled retoucher or a newer generator can defeat any single cue. Always cross-check.