AI imagery and video still gets called out for some glaring errors. We recently saw a video of New York with two Empire State Buildings used to suggest that Hollywood should be quaking, while many small eateries and restaurants apparently don't realise that AI-generated menu items look revoltingly unappetising.
But AI image generators have been getting progressively better at replicating photorealism, and it's not always so easy to tell that an image is fake, leading to fears about how easily AI can be to spread lies online.
Take the image in the post on X below. There are lots of things wrong with the image. But can you spot them?
Heading to @BBC . A full day with 40 colleagues from BBC Verify, asking the important questions. Such as: is this photo real?Usually not. That's rather the point.Can you figure out why this picture is not real without using a detector ? #osint pic.twitter.com/4fsXzlkjKkSeptember 9, 2026
At first glance the image above looks like a photo of a mundane everyday scene at a courier officer, which appears to be handling shipment of a 50in TV. There's even a bit of motion blur on one of the person's hands.
"Can you figure out why this picture is not real without using a detector?" was the challenge laid down by AI researcher Henk van Ess. Take a moment to see how many clues you can spot.
Lovely challenge! 1. Text of tag not aligned properly 2. Odd shadows underneath left hand 3. Strange 'third leg'/ shadow pic.twitter.com/LEsaci2XIESeptember 9, 2026
Perspective error. pic.twitter.com/ajK8pBNlNPSeptember 9, 2026
Those commenting have noticed many anomalies in the image. Firstly, the TV's measurements. AI image generators might now be able to handle text, but it seems they're not too hot doing conversions between metric and imperial because 50 inches are not the same as 144cm.
Moreover, judging by its relative size compared to the floor tiles and the person in the image, the box wouldn't be large enough to hold a 50in TV (and less a 144cm one). The person also appears to have a third leg, and there are some strange shadows under their left hand.
Looking more closely, there are some perspective errors too. There's something pretty funky going on with the of tiling on the floor in the background. And on the box itself, the edges of the AirPlay/Home labels don’t follow the same vanishing point as the cardboard they’re supposedly printed on – another sign of AI image generation (or some bad Photoshop).
Someone also finds it suspect that this kind of box would be printed with spot colour and CMYK. It's even more suspicious that there's no brand logo on the image of the TV.
And speaking of logos, graphic design nerds like me will also notice that the 'X' of FedEx should be touching the 'E' to form the famous hidden arrow in the logo.
Henk, the original poster, wrote the people-research chapter of the Verification Handbook for Investigative Reporting and teaches workshops on verification and AI-assisted research. He also created the Image Whisperer tool, which is designed to help identify AI images.
