A checklist to help you spot AI-generated misinformation

Going through some papers from this year’s Online News Association conference in Atlanta, I found this handout put together by the folks at Verify.

I couldn’t find any reference to it online so I thought I’d post it here for posterity.

Images

• Zoom In! Look for distorted details
• Textures: Too smooth or unrealistic?
• Face/Body Features: Hands, Feet, Teeth, Ears
• Analyze intricate images (ie. Flags, Paintings)
• Look for repeating patterns
• Analyze shadows
• Depth of field issues
• Remnants (Extraneous pieces of data)

Audio

• Too pristine
• Voice doesn’t make common sounds (um, uh, like)
• No ambient background sound
• Voice mispronounces common words
• Voice is flat/unemotional. Doesn’t take breaths

Video

• Voice Doesn’t match mouth movement
• Subject’s movements unrealistic
• Background too static
• Subject is not in proportion to other elements
• Glitches in the movement

Journalism

• Go to the source: Who’s named in the content?
• Credits: Who posted it, who is credited as the photographer?
• Reverse image search to look for similar posts
• Do other credible reports exist?
• Does the context make sense?
• Is this realistic
• Google it!
• Who could benefit/be harmed by the claim?