Leo Gillick
Every day, AI pushes the bounds of what is possible, coming closer to sentience and human mockery. Now, we’re plagued by fake videos, fooling the gullible and uninformed into believing all sorts of nonsense. But there are ways to spot fake AI videos if you know where to look.
Videos by Rare
Before you go commenting, sharing, and marvelling at the latest four-headed baby singing on Britain’s Got Talent, run through this list. It could save you from looking like a total fool.
1. Fingers And Faces
One of the fastest things to spot in a fake AI video is the fingers. For some reason, our humble digits still blow AI’s mind. If you pay attention to the hands, often the fingers will be wrong. Pause the video, count the fingers, and look at how they’re positioned. I guarantee they will be all over the place.
Faces, too, are often just not quite right. Easy tells to look out for are things like eyes that roll around in the head. The mouths on fake AI videos often have too many teeth or slip around the face. Look closely, and witness the horrors.
2. Ripples and Shadows
Fake AI loves to use liquid and water effects in its videos, but they’re an easy giveaway. Look at the way the water moves. Does it continue to ripple, does it leave wet stains, and does it splash against other things?
Shadows aren’t too easy to render, even for quite advanced AI. So, look at the people and objects in the videos. Are they casting believable shadows on the surfaces around them? If not, it’s probably fake.
3. Gravity
Watch how things move in the video. It’s easy to spot when something is the result of a fake AI video when objects and people don’t move with gravity. Often, in a computer-generated video, things like hair will move all wrong, flipping around the screen.
When anything moves, make sure it is abiding by the laws of gravity we’re all beholden to.
4. Use Some Common Sense
Before you get swept away by a video of a 500-meter-long snake or a cat singing the national anthem, use a little critical thinking. I know there isn’t a lot of it to go around these days, but please. Is it believable? Have you ever seen anything like it before? Google it. Has anyone else been speaking about it?
Don’t be a shmuck.
