October 15th, 2024

Written by Anna Keagy, Gallery Intern

A.I. has become increasingly prevalent in the art world. Many people are now trying to pass off AI-generated images as their own handmade artwork. It has appeared on posters, book covers, and Instagram. However, A.I. art isn’t perfect. Here are three tips for identifying when a piece of art is AI generated. And do you notice any that we missed?

1. Objects that don’t match

At first glance, this image of a cowboy looks normal. But if you look closely, his boots are mismatched. One of them even has laces! Cowboy boots don’t have laces. This is a simple mistake that a human artist wouldn’t make.

2. The wrong number of fingers


Look closely at this cowboy’s hand. He only has four fingers. AI struggles when it comes to generating human hands, and frequently messes up small details (like the number of fingers someone has). Counting the fingers is a great tactic if you aren’t sure about a piece of art.

3. Logical issues


This image of a chairlift just doesn’t make sense. As you can see, the lines that hold the chairs up just vanish suddenly. It’s impossible for those chairs to stay in the air. Also, there’s a bunch of other chairs just floating in thin air around it. No one would design a chairlift like that.
AI is quickly improving, but it isn’t perfect yet. Just look at the little details. There are plenty of little mistakes that a human artist just wouldn’t make.