Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
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ZDNET's key takeaways
AI images have subtle flaws that reveal they're fake.
Check faces, hands, and textures for common AI errors.
Free tools like Circle to Search help detect AI images.
AI-generated images are everywhere now. I see them in my news feeds, in Google Images, in Pinterest pins, and even in some ads. It's so pervasive that people have coined the term "AI slop." Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this flood of AI-generated content on your favorite platforms is not going to stop, and it's only going to get harder to tell what's real.
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Generative models are getting better daily. When Google released Gemini 3 with its latest Nano Banana Pro image generator, I was stunned by how easily it can create photo-realistic images and keep likeness intact. In seconds, I can edit and iterate on any photo until it looks perfect. But that's the problem. It's harder than ever to trust what you're seeing online.
So, how can you spot an AI image? Here are six signs for spotting the fakes, plus my favorite free AI image detector.
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