Real or AI: can a photographer and internet addict spot fake portraits?

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]People these days like to think that they can pick an AI image. So, the University of New South Wales has put together a test. And as Guardian Australia's picture editor, I'm going to use my technical prowess to try and see if I can get the best results. And as someone who's just on the internet too much, I'm going to go off of vibes.

[00:00:20]Do you think this is AI or not? This feels slightly rigged for me. Um and I'm going to go big old AI.

[00:00:27]Just because I don't remember being there. My uh we had sort of cheek filler. Yep. I think is making me question why AI doesn't think that my cheeks are enough.

[00:00:36]>> This little section down here as well, where it actually says your name Matilda Bosley, The Guardian, on a little sign that you would assume would be in an office, for example. Yeah.

[00:00:45]>> Yeah, it's an interesting element.

[00:00:46]>> No, that that's on the streets of Melbourne. You just Yeah. I'm I'm very big there. I'm going solid AI.

[00:00:51]>> Okay. I think I tend to agree with you.

[00:00:53]Okay, >> [laughter] >> perfect. Uh the Gemini logo right there also helps.

[00:00:57]>> Yeah, I probably should have cropped that out. All right.

[00:01:00]Hotty. He's a computer-generated hotty.

[00:01:03]Talk me through. So, when I see someone so normal-looking, but also attractive, I would say AI. And also now that I'm noticing, um his neck and his shoulder, he's got a double muscle there. Yeah, the muscle definition is confusing. That in of itself lends itself towards this idea of like pixel sort of movements as well. Like what's happening with the pixels here in the image that doesn't quite line up. The thing that I'm looking at in this one is the depth of field. So, the depth of field is where you've got the sharpness at one part of the frame, and then it goes off into softness in another part of the frame.

[00:01:32]And the thing here that really throws me off is this section here.

[00:01:35]>> Ooh. Right? So, he's got his shirt, which then kind of just morphs into sort of a blue wash. I'm not sure what that is.

[00:01:43]Uh it looks like some sort of watercolor painting that's drifted into the background and merged onto your shirt. I don't know what's happening there. For me, one of the interesting things is it's obviously very focused and very blurry.

[00:01:55]And usually, if I saw that, I would think, oh, it's the iPhone portrait mode where it sort of fake cuts you out and just makes you blurry to make it look like you've got like a proper camera.

[00:02:04]But his ears are blurry and those would be cut out and in focus if it was portrait mode. So it makes me think a real camera wouldn't do it that dramatically, an iPhone wouldn't do it that subtly. [music] I kind of think it's computer generated. Also he's pretty.

[00:02:17]So we're both going AI. Yeah, I'm going AI on this one.

[00:02:21]Hey, the shoulder muscles gave it away.

[00:02:24]We're going well, we're going well. All right. All right, shoot. AI, earrings wrong.

[00:02:31]Earrings wrong.

[00:02:33]It's again, it's just looks like generic person trademark. I think it's AI. That was a quick one. I mean, I tend to agree. The earrings are the telltale sign here for me, definitely.

[00:02:44]But also having a look sort of at the lighting setup here as well. And also uh there's something to do with the eyes. I feel like sometimes when I'm looking at AI images there's something about the way the symmetry of the eyes is just I don't know what the word is. Very matrix-like, dystopian. Yeah. And I think when you're used to seeing people in real time or real images of real people I don't know, their eyes are always slightly unsymmetrical. Again, neck muscle also a bit weird.

[00:03:17]These people have an odd workout routine.

[00:03:20]AI. AI.

[00:03:23]Hey, see?

[00:03:24]>> Three for three. The earrings.

[00:03:26]What do you think?

[00:03:28]Um real.

[00:03:32]I think.

[00:03:34]It is unfortunate that in my justification for real I will just be pointing out people's very slight flaws.

[00:03:39]But um the eyebrows being slightly unkempt um a little tiny bit of sweat on the lower lip.

[00:03:48]>> It's difficult. It's like with this one I'm actually quite perplexed. One thing that I'm always looking for in this, for example, it looks completely cut out.

[00:03:56]And so looking at the detail of how good they can deep etch images onto plain backgrounds is something that can sometimes be a tell. So if they've cut something out or put on a different colored background, you can sometimes figure that out by the hair. Having a look at the hair, like how detailed is that is something you can sometimes see.

[00:04:11]So are we saying that a human cutting something out would actually be worse at it than AI?

[00:04:16]>> Yes.

[00:04:17]So I'm going to go real for it, okay?

[00:04:19]What's your thoughts? I think I'm going to go AI. And it's real. GOD DAMN IT.

[00:04:27]OH, ALL MY technical know-how, my my my deep understanding of photography. You know what you don't understand? A messy shaver.

[00:04:37]>> [laughter] [gasps] >> Vibes win.

[00:04:42]>> [laughter] >> Vibes win, damn it.