How to tell if an image is AI-generated

Updated July 2026

Modern image generators produce photos that routinely fool the human eye. Studies keep showing that untrained viewers barely beat a coin flip on recent models. Yet a methodical check still catches most fakes, because generation leaves traces — not always in the pixels, but around them. Here is the method we use as the first pass of every review at Bureau Attest.

1. Read the metadata before the pixels

A photograph taken by a real camera or phone carries EXIF metadata: device make and model, capture date, lens, exposure settings, sometimes GPS. AI-generated images almost never carry a believable camera signature. Check for free with our in-browser checker — your file never leaves your device. Two caveats matter. Missing EXIF proves nothing: social networks and messaging apps strip metadata from everything. And present EXIF proves little: metadata can be edited. It is a signal, not a verdict.

2. Look for Content Credentials (C2PA)

The C2PA standard can attach signed Content Credentials to a file, recording certain provenance and editing information. When present and valid, they can document the declared tool or process. Their absence proves nothing, and their presence does not guarantee the truth of the depicted scene.

3. Hunt the classic visual artifacts

Zoom to 200% and inspect in particular small text and logos, hands and jewelry, reflections, hair, repetitive textures and lighting inconsistencies. Recent models show these flaws less and less, and none of them constitutes, in isolation, proof of generation.

4. Reverse-search the image

Google Lens and TinEye answer a different, equally useful question: has this image existed before, and in what context? A "breaking news" photo that first appeared three years ago, or an identical twin on a stock site, closes the case without any forensics.

5. Why automated AI detectors disagree

Free online detectors output confident percentages — and routinely contradict each other on the same file. They are classifiers trained on yesterday's generators, evaluated on today's. Treat any single detector score as one weak signal among many, never as an answer. No serious analyst relies on one.

When you need more than signals

If a decision hangs on the answer — a dispute, an accusation, a purchase, a publication — signals are not enough. Bureau Attest performs a human examination of your file (metadata, provenance, visual forensics) and issues an Authenticity Analysis Report with a public verification link, usually within 2 hours. Request an analysis — from €9. If our review is inconclusive, we say so and you are simply not charged.