As CNET's reviewer for AI image and video generators, one of the job's greatest perks is cracking up at the hilariously bad, wildly bizarre and occasionally creepy images these generator tools spit out.
Don't get me wrong, AI creative software has come a long way in a short amount of time. I've created beautiful sci-fi scenes in Midjourney, realistic-looking product images with Stable Diffusion and AI-ified myself with ChatGPT. But no AI service is perfect, and I've observed some notable trends during my testing.
There are things that, despite constant updates, AI image generators simply can't handle well on the first try.
Some AI image programs give you tools to edit these mistakes, which is great. I highly recommend taking advantage of them whenever possible. For programs that don't offer those tools, or more likely, when those tools don't fix the problem, this is what you should do next.
Based on my experience, I've compiled my tried-and-true tips for tweaking your prompts and settings to optimize your images. For more, check out the best AI image generators and our guide to effective AI image prompt writing.
Human faces and expressions
Katelyn Chedraoui via Canva Magic Media AI/CNET
Accurate facial expressions continually challenge AI generators. Quirky eyes, teeth and eyebrows are some of the strongest indicators that an image is AI-generated. In this case, the result was extremely funny to me, if also completely unusable. The girls are sporting some Halloween-like vampire teeth, and the dude in the back is having more than a bad hair day.
Stephen Shankland via Dall-E 3/CNET
Even with cartoon or non-realistic characters, generators struggle to moderate emotion and expressions. This image -- created by our best pick, Dall-E 3 -- over-amplified the prompt, and the end result was too dramatic. I'm a self-identified neat freak, but I can't imagine anyone getting this upset over what looks like hundreds of dollars of cleaning supplies. Even the best programs can fail and produce wonky results.
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