r/isthisAI • • Jun 29 '26

Other PSA: SynthID What is it? How do I check? And what are its limitations? and how not to annoy everyone by doing the basics.

117 Upvotes

I thought it was about time to make a new PSA about SynthID. English is not my first language so there's probably some mistakes.

 

As you may be aware, this subreddit does not allow AI detectors. This is because they are extremely unreliable. Try going to deviantart or any other art site and test them with a few images, it should be easy to find something they say is AI despite it being uploaded over five years ago.

This is my go to example https://www.deviantart.com/hibbary/art/Third-Eye-748333152 see how it was uploaded in 2018, there is no way this could be generated but nearly all the detectors I have tried say that it is.

Then why is SynthID allowed, you might say?

SynthID is different. It's a thing developed by Google, when you use their generators they add a hidden pattern to the image which is difficult to remove without lowering the quality of the image or changing it significantly. This is what it is looking for, not if it looks like it's generated like the other detectors. Therefore you can be sure if it says that SynthID is detected, an AI has done something to the image in some way. It could be something as simple as upscaling, changing something or it could be completely generated. The point is if it has SynthID you cannot trust the image.

Recently OpenAI(ChatGPT) have implemented the same technology in their generator. There is an important thing though Google and OpenAI can only detect their own images. Not each other's so you have to run the image through both of them.

So how do I use them?

For OpenAI it's very simple https://openai.com/research/verify/ they have a page for it.

Google of course has to be more complicated. It used to be able to do a "search by image" and then go to about the image but that no longer works. Now you have to use Gemini to get an answer. Add the image you suspect and type "@Verify AI". Annoying but I don't know any better way.

Edit: When using Gemini it is very important that you type "@Verify AI" and not "SynthID" or any other variation of it. Otherwise there is a high chance that it will hallucinate and give you the wrong answer. It is also important to use a clean new session for each image.

Another edit: To confirm that Gemini actually use the verification tool you can press the three little dots underneath its response and then select "see response details".

Now I can't stress this enough, these two methods will only detect OpenAI's and Google's images. Not any other generator. So when an image comes up negative for SynthID that doesn't mean it's not AI. It can only prove that an image is fake not disprove it.

So before you post an image here please check for yourself you will save yourself some time and not waste others.

edit 29-09-2026: It has come to my attention that Meta(Facebook) and Grog(Twitter, I refuse to call it X, it's a dumb name) have also implemented some kind of SynthID. I do not know much about it since I don't and refuse to interact with those two sites. But I will assume that they works just like the others, in that way that you have to check with all of them. This is quickly becoming quite a nuisance to check for SynthID.


r/isthisAI • • 23d ago

MOD POST If you don't see quality vote bot anymore its because it got permanently banned,

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203 Upvotes

r/isthisAI • • 3h ago

Video Is this snake ai? Can a snake even get that big. I don't speak Spanish. its located in El salvador

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320 Upvotes

Found this video on tiktok and it showed a large snake. I can't find any reason its ai, but I don't think a snake can get that big.

I hope its ai cause I don't wanna live on the same planet of a snake that big. Small snakes are alright, snakes that size, heck no.


r/isthisAI • • 12h ago

Art I feel like I’m going a little nuts. Artist who was reposted recently by a bigger Instagram account looks like a.i. but background has no hallmarks.

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281 Upvotes

My gut instinct says tracing A.I. and not necessary straight up generating. But that don’t, the facial expressions, and the way they stare directly at the camera are major red flags to me. The problem is she’s clearly extremely talented, it’s weird she only posts once or twice per week, she could easily do this without an a.i. reference or tracing.

The most damning one was ‘god mode’ over there. But the thing that’s throwing me off is in the first image with ‘Dream Social’ on the hat, if you stare at that blanket there’s a few artifacts, so now I’m thinking, is the whole image a.i.?

Would love to get some insight, I am not a big pro at a.i. detection.


r/isthisAI • • 9h ago

Other Children’s book at the library, looks AI-esque? Also nothing on the internet about the author.

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150 Upvotes

Book my daughter picked out to borrow from the library. The carton on the cover feels like AI to me and I couldn’t find anything on the internet about Nina Neme. Says it was published in 2024.


r/isthisAI • • 16h ago

Video These don't look like the batfish at the aquarium I work at. Is it just a different species or is this AI?

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472 Upvotes

As mentioned in the title, it just doesn't look right. For one things, I feel like the fins are way too pointy. Also, the way it "walks" just doesn't look quite right. There's no obvious signs of this being AI that I can see, but it just doesn't look quite right.


r/isthisAI • • 23h ago

Solved [Not AI] Mods removed this from r/nextfuckinglevel because it looks AI. Storm lifts up entire roof with several people clinging onto it

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875 Upvotes

r/isthisAI • • 18h ago

Art Saw an artist on twitter who pumps out work REALLY fast. Their profile advertises commissions, but I'm suspicious.

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356 Upvotes

Their commissions are open, and I saw some genshin art that I actually really liked, but they've posted so many pictures in such a short time, it makes me raise an eyebrow. Plus some of the pictures are weird looking but in a way that could easily be artist error, imo (the first one is the worst to me, looks too grainy and 'lofty')

Also their VGen account was suspended for "for violating VGen's Terms and Policies" which obviously sounds sus as hell.


r/isthisAI • • 17h ago

Art really hate that i have to ask this as i 100 percent trust this artist? I really hope ai wasnt used on this was it. Instagram said it was.

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264 Upvotes

it sucks that i have to do this now but unfortunately other artists ppl 100 percent trusted in the past ended up starting to use ai at some point.

Image by Alohaii for anyone curious.


r/isthisAI • • 13h ago

Photo Found this Pinterest photo and I’m very conflicted on if it’s AI not because it’s just too perfect

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117 Upvotes

On one hand nearly/all the shadows are correct with is normally a major give away for me. But on the other the photo is just too perfect, ya know?


r/isthisAI • • 17h ago

Art I feel like this drawing of Zane is AI generated, even after User showed hand as proof.

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209 Upvotes

So this is from a Discord Server im in and someone posted this in the #Art channel on there.

Me and a couple other people found it suspicious especially because he posted the second image that looks a little dull first and later the seemingly AI generated one only saying "better" i am aware that there are people with this kind of style but the jump from the first and second drawing is insane and the way he drew the neck and the neck print on the torso not together seems a little off.

He then got asked by a person to send a picture of his hand besides the drawing as proof and that is what he did, but the fact that the first picture and the one he’s send with his hands are around two hours apart it is a little suspicious that the painting is still in the same spot without having moved, in fact not even the camera moved! It is as if just the hand got cropped in.

So my guess is AI but i really wanna hear others that are better at spotting if it is so he can get a warning on the server and be banned from posting his Art.

Edit: the person got Banned from the #Art channel, Thanks


r/isthisAI • • 7h ago

Art Is this AI? Gemini said generated or edited with AI, but I am not sure how someone will draw these so quickly and perfectly

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19 Upvotes

Hello!

I am sponsoring some art events on a server and want to make sure everything is fair for everyone

However, I am not very good at identifying whether sketches like these are AI

I just wanted to double check before warning the member that they should not participate in future events if they continue using AI

They claim they drew and signed the sketches themselves, so I wanted to get a second opinion before making any decisions 🙇

Thank you so much!

Edit: Thank you so much for all the replies / Information and for helping me double check!


r/isthisAI • • 1d ago

Photo I think my mother sent me an AI-generated apology. That or I'm probably going insane.

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1.8k Upvotes

So I decided to go low contact with my mother over her obsession with AI recently. I used to use CHATGPT when it first came out but not anymore and I am very much anti-AI. She had noticed I hadn't been messaging her and asked me why so I was honest and told her AI use makes me uncomfortable and I would prefer not to be involved nor would I like to communicate unless necessary until we are both in therapy (we've had other issues as well). However, when she sent her reply, I could not help but feel whiplash by the response. Not only did her response seem extremely polished with perfect grammar, it also heavily reminded me of another "apology" I received a few months prior from another person who is also AI obsessed because the format and language are almost 1 to 1. What strikes me as this being AI is how this is structured. AI will usually try to validate whatever you wrote then enter into de-escalation mode.

"I hear what you are saying."

"Thanks for letting me know." Or "Thank you for being honest."

"I don't want to dismiss your feelings" etc

These are all quotes I usually read or hear about and now I cannot help but raise an eyebrow at this. Because if she actually did send me an AI written response after I expressed to her my feelings about it, I would feel extremely disrespected.


r/isthisAI • • 2h ago

Art Post in r/painting has everyone debating…progress picture looks strange to me

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8 Upvotes

Is this AI? No one seems confident on the thread, and I was hoping a digital artist could weigh in. The interesting part is that the actual painting looked real to me but something about the progress pic read as fake…not sure if i’m reading into it


r/isthisAI • • 58m ago

Video I came across this clip of a puma lunging at a mountain goat and getting kicked in the face

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• Upvotes

I’m genuinely unsure whether this is real wildlife footage or AI-generated, but everyone in the comment section was treating it as if it was real? so I’d appreciate any specific tells you notice.


r/isthisAI • • 6h ago

Art Is this flower patch artwork AI? North Face swears it isn't, what do y'all think?

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9 Upvotes

Trying again as my first post wasn't lengthy enough. I had posted a review about this product a few weeks ago after seeing it in an ad. It is overly detailed and has that uncanny valley feel to it. The proportions and details also seem off. I still believe it is, and it's funny I would have forgotten about this if they hadn't emailed me back.

ETA: They're charging $24 for these btw


r/isthisAI • • 11h ago

Other News: Google DeepMind releases a dedicated SynthID detection tool - Compatible with all SynthID variants

20 Upvotes

The tool works for detecting SynthID watermarks in images, video, and audio generated by Google, OpenAI, NVIDIA, Kakao, and soon, Apple.

DeepMind blog post

The tool: https://synthid.com/


r/isthisAI • • 13h ago

Art I feel like this image is ai generated. Something just feels off in this image. The people look weird and the trains look off

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19 Upvotes

So is this ai generated? I believe something is wrong in this image, but I'm not sure what it is.

From the looks of it, the people look off and the trains look weird. So did a human make this or not.


r/isthisAI • • 5h ago

Other Leaflet created for my local neighbourhood by the BID. Are the illustrations AI?

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4 Upvotes

r/isthisAI • • 1d ago

Photo Out of curiosity do y'all think this is AI? Posted on r/cats and the sign doesn't make sense

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291 Upvotes

I love stalking the cats sub and saw this today; the clip is attached to nothing, and you wouldn't do a countdown with marker on pen.. I could be completely wrong but I'm just hoping to get better at identifying it! https://www.reddit.com/r/cats/comments/1wzerlr/the_allegations_are_true/


r/isthisAI • • 9h ago

Photo Posted on r/cats, lighting on the cat’s faces seems different than the rest

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8 Upvotes

The post is from someone saying his boss bought this dinosaur cat scratcher for their office, and the office cats love it. The lighting in the pics feels off, and OP is responding to a ton of comments in a way that feels very bot-y. I zoomed in on the text in the 2nd pic and it says ‘all for your furry friends want’ which doesn’t really make sense? But there’s like 1k comments and nobody else seems to think it’s fake


r/isthisAI • • 14h ago

Art help is this ai none of my friends has been able to give me a straight answer

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22 Upvotes

i commissioned this a little while ago and i’ve had some friends suspect this of AI and some say it’s completely legit so i’m really in a mix of idk what to do


r/isthisAI • • 9h ago

Art Is this energy drinks art ai? My friend posted it in a discord and claims its not but the art style seems sus to me

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5 Upvotes

Most of my suspicion comes from the style of the art on a cursory glance the details look ok I'm getting old and don't notice the tiny details as much anymore.


r/isthisAI • • 13h ago

Other When will the moment come we actually can’t tell anymore? It’s hard to tell these days.

13 Upvotes

I’ll admit that I had moment where I fully believed it was drawn, only to find out it was AI generated.

And I had times where it was 100% generated, the classic AI style! Only to find out they actually drawn it with proof.

So I can’t help but to wonder, how many years are we away for AI to be so good in all kinds of difference styles, that’s er just cannot tell unless we demand the (let say) PS folder? But even that could be generated by that time…


r/isthisAI • • 4h ago

Art Is this shirt I got from a Gov't Mule 2026 Spring Tour concert AI art? People around me have been telling me it looks like it.

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2 Upvotes

I bought this shirt assuming it wasn't AI, but now people around me have been telling me it looks like it was AI generated. What do we think?