With the emergence of artificial intelligence, it has become more difficult to decipher fact from fiction while browsing the internet. AI generators have become useful for everything from text to images, but as the web is flooded with fabricated content, the challenge now seems never-ending. To provide clarity amidst the chaos,Googlehas launched a new feature to help you weed out fakes while browsing through images.
An update posted byGoogleto its blog on October 25 detailed new tools that are being rolled out to help you identify content created by AI. When you view an image from your Google search results, you may now click on the “About this image” option for additional information. This gives you insight into its history, how other websites describe and use the image, and its metadata. Its history can give you a better idea of its age and whether it may have been repurposed or taken out of context. With information on the image’s usage, you can gain insight into whether websites are referring to it as authentic. The metadata may explicitly state if the image was created using AI, and Google explains that it flags those generated with AI. The company is continuing to refine its fact-checking tools as well, specifically to help journalists and other fact checkers ensure they are not contributing to the spread of misinformation.
The AI-generated image detection doesn’t appear to be some revolutionary tool, however — as the company said in its release, “All Google AI-generated images will have this markup in the original file,” suggesting it will simply read a portion of metadata that is voluntarily added to the file at the time of creation. If an AI generator doesn’t include such metadata, it’s doubtful this tool would report it as AI-generated.
This isn’t Google’s first push to make fact-checking easier for the media and everyday search users alike. For instance, its “fact check” label beganappearing in some Google search resultsback in 2020. However, it was specific to images that populated from fact-checking websites.
In June 2023, the company took its initiative one step further byinviting the public to help. Google began recruiting beta testers for the Image Search tool to explore how its fact-checking process would play out. Approved users were able to upload and provide links to images, helping to determine if they had shown up in past fact-checking sessions.
The end results include the latest feature, which is aimed at debunking images generated by AI, but it’s hard to imagine that Google will stop here. As AI continues to evolve and fraudulent content becomes more widespread, the company seems intent on staying ahead of the curve. With tools like Fact Check Explorer, Google search users can do their best to stay vigilant, too.
