“Only slightly better than a coin flip” — most people can be fooled by AI images. Think you can do better?

Image of ginger cat generated by Midjourney.

Identifying AI-generated or modified images will become increasingly important as tools to create content become more accessible. Years ago, it took an expert a significant amount of time and effort to create a convincing fake. Now, that can be done with a few keystrokes or clicks.

A recent study by researchers from the Microsoft AI for Good Lab reports that people's ability to identify AI images is "only slightly higher than flipping a coin." Those who participated in a game identifying AI images only had an overall success rate of 62%.