FakeRadar Blog

AI Detection Guides & Research

Deep, practical explainers on how AI content detection actually works — ELA, FFT, C2PA, deepfakes and face swaps. Written by the team building the tool.

Featured Guides & Comparisons

The 7 Best AI Image Detectors in 2026, Honestly Compared

We tested the leading AI image detectors — Hive, AI or Not, Sightengine, Illuminarty, Winston, WasItAI and our own FakeRadar — and compared free limits, pricing, deepfake support and forensic depth. Including where our competitors beat us.

June 12, 2026 8 min read
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Guides & Comparisons 8 min

How to Check a Suspicious WhatsApp or Forwarded Photo

Suspicious photo shared in a WhatsApp group or forwarded to you? Here's why metadata checks alone fail on compressed images — and how to verify one for free.

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Guides & Comparisons 5 min

Is This Photo AI-Generated? A Free Step-by-Step Check

A practical, no-jargon way to check whether a photo is AI-generated — the visual signals to look for, why your eyes aren't enough, and how to verify it for free in seconds.

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Face Swap 9 min

How to Spot a Fake (AI) LinkedIn Profile Photo

AI-generated headshots are flooding LinkedIn. Learn the visual tells of GAN-synthesized faces, why reverse image search fails, and how to run a forensic check in seconds.

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Image Forensics 10 min

How to Spot Fake Disaster and Earthquake Photos on Social Media

Two kinds of fake spread after every disaster: AI-generated scenes and recycled real photos. Learn the signals, the context checks, and how forensic analysis helps — without panicking.

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Deepfake Detection 10 min

Celebrity Deepfake Investment Scam Ads: How to Spot Them

Deepfake videos of Elon Musk, Tom Hanks and others are used to run fraudulent investment ads. Learn the visual signals in the video, how the scam works, and how to verify a suspicious clip.

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Guides & Comparisons 8 min

How to Tell If a Product Listing Photo Is AI-Generated

AI-generated product renders and fake staging photos are flooding Amazon, Temu, and secondhand markets. Here's how to spot them before you buy — and what forensic signals actually reveal.

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Image Forensics 9 min

Shrimp Jesus and "AI Slop": What It Is and How to Spot It

AI slop is flooding Facebook feeds — surreal images of shrimp Jesus, crochet eagles, and bleeding veterans racking up millions of reactions. Here is what it is, why it spreads, and the forensic signals that expose it.

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Deepfake Detection 9 min

How to Detect an AI-Generated Video in 2026 (Sora, Kling, Runway)

A practical guide to spotting AI-generated and deepfake videos in 2026 — the frame-level signals to look for, how face-swap video differs from text-to-video, and how to verify for free.

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Image Forensics 8 min

How to Spot Flux-Generated AI Images

Flux renders hands and text better than any previous open-weight model — which means the old visual tricks no longer work. Here's what does: pixel-level forensic signals.

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Image Forensics 9 min

How to Tell If an Image Was Made by Grok (Aurora)

Grok's Aurora model floods X with photorealistic AI images that are harder to spot than they look. Learn the forensic signals — diffusion artifacts, frequency fingerprints, and metadata gaps — that Aurora leaves behind.

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Face Swap 4 min

How to Detect a Face Swap: 6 Signals to Look For

Face-swap deepfakes are convincing at a glance but leave forensic traces. Here are six signals — from blending seams to eye reflections — that reveal a swapped face, and where the human eye falls short.

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Deepfake Detection 6 min

How to Tell If a Dating Profile Photo Is AI-Generated: 7 Signals

Reverse image search is blind to AI-generated faces — a freshly generated portrait has never appeared online, so 'no results' proves nothing. Here are seven signals that a dating profile photo was made by AI, and how to protect yourself.

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Guides & Comparisons 8 min

The 7 Best AI Image Detectors in 2026, Honestly Compared

We tested the leading AI image detectors — Hive, AI or Not, Sightengine, Illuminarty, Winston, WasItAI and our own FakeRadar — and compared free limits, pricing, deepfake support and forensic depth. Including where our competitors beat us.

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Deepfake Detection 7 min

Deepfake Job Interviews: How to Detect AI-Generated Video Candidates

Deepfake fraud in remote job interviews has surged 1,300% since 2022. This guide explains how it works, what warning signs to look for, and how forensic tools can help verify video authenticity.

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Deepfake Detection 7 min

Deepfake Romance Scams: How to Check if You're Talking to a Real Person

Romance scammers increasingly use AI-generated profile photos and deepfake videos to build fake relationships. This guide explains the warning signs and the forensic tools that can help you verify someone's identity online.

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Image Forensics 6 min

EXIF Metadata and Image Forensics: What Hidden Data Reveals

Every photograph taken with a real camera embeds invisible metadata — camera model, GPS coordinates, timestamp, lens settings. AI-generated images typically have none. Here is how to read EXIF data and what to look for.

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Image Forensics 6 min

FFT Spectrum Analysis: How Frequency Patterns Reveal AI-Generated Images

Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis detects characteristic frequency signatures that distinguish AI-generated images from real photographs. Here is how it works and what to look for.

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Guides & Comparisons 8 min

How to Detect Midjourney Images: Forensic Tells and Detection Tools

Midjourney produces some of the most photorealistic AI images available. This guide covers the forensic signatures unique to Midjourney outputs and how to spot them with and without tools.

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Image Forensics 4 min

How to Read ELA Heatmaps: A Plain-English Guide

Error Level Analysis (ELA) is one of the oldest image forensics tools — yet most explanations are written for academics. This guide shows you what to look for, what the colours mean, and what ELA cannot tell you.

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Guides & Comparisons 6 min

Midjourney vs DALL-E: How to Tell AI Images Apart by Their Artifacts

Midjourney and DALL-E produce subtly different forensic signatures. Knowing the differences helps you identify not just that an image is AI-generated, but which model likely produced it.

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Privacy & Security 7 min

Privacy-First AI Image Verification: Why Zero-Retention Matters

Most AI detection tools store the images you upload. FakeRadar does not. Here is why zero-retention image analysis matters for journalists, researchers, lawyers and anyone handling sensitive visual content.

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Provenance & C2PA 4 min

What is C2PA? Content Credentials Explained

C2PA is an open standard that attaches a verifiable provenance record to images, videos and audio — tracking where a file came from and what edits were made. Here is how it works, who supports it, and what it means for detecting AI-generated content.

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Guides & Comparisons 5 min

Why AI Detection Is Signal-Based — Not a Verdict

AI image detection tools do not produce a binary true/false verdict. They surface forensic signals. Understanding the difference makes you a better analyst — and a more sceptical consumer of detection results.

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