Not Everything Online is Real Anymore

Old photos used to be hard to fake. Now AI can make fake photos and videos in seconds. So when you see something wild online, ask: 'Could this be AI-made?'

Some examples

• AI can make a fake photo of a celebrity.
• AI can fake a video of an animal doing tricks.
• Not all 'news' photos are real.
• Ask a parent if a photo looks too crazy to be true.

Try it!

Look at an image online with a parent. Ask: how can we tell if it's real or AI-made?

How to spot AI-generated images and videos

AI-generated images and videos have gotten remarkably realistic, but they still leave clues. The most common giveaways are: hands with the wrong number of fingers or strangely bent joints; text in images that is garbled or doesn't spell real words; backgrounds that look almost right but have odd geometry or repeated patterns; teeth that look unnaturally perfect or blurred; reflections that don't match the light source. AI video often has strange movement artifacts around hair, fabric edges, and mouths when speaking. None of these signals are 100% reliable — good AI-generated content can avoid many of them — but they're a useful starting checklist. The bigger habit is simply pausing before sharing anything surprising. When something seems designed to make you feel strong emotions quickly — outrage, disbelief, excitement — that emotional urgency is often by design. Taking 30 seconds to reverse-image-search or check a trusted news source before sharing is one of the most impactful things you can do as a media consumer.

• Check hands: AI often gets fingers wrong — extra, missing, or strangely bent
• Check text in images: AI text is often garbled or misspelled
• Check the source: is this from a verified news organization or an unknown account?
• Pause before sharing anything that makes you feel immediate strong emotion