6 Clear Signs A Video Is AI Generated

With AI growing increasingly popular and more companies developing realistic video-generating models, such as Google's Nano Banana, it's commonplace to view content that has been AI generated. While some of these AI videos can be cute (and obviously digitally rendered), like a baby kangaroo trying to board a plane, there's a lot of AI content being used to spread fake news and mislead people. In today's volatile political world, AI-generated videos can play a big role in manipulating the public opinion, so being able to determine when content is real or not is increasingly important in our everyday lives.

Even though some companies have added tools that make it easier to spot AI-generated content, there are still many ways for people to publish this type of content. While it isn't likely that someone could believe a deer and a black bear broke in a bathroom window, falling for a more serious AI-generated video could, if nothing else, be embarrassing to share. Fortunately, there are several ways to identify if a video has been AI generated or not, like unnatural movements and expressions, mismatched audio and video, and more.

On social media platforms, the first thing you should look for is a tag or label identifying the content as AI-generated. Meta, for instance, lets users tag content that has been AI generated, and it even created an Instagram-like feed for AI video slop. YouTube requires creators to tag any "altered or synthetic media" on any realistic content, and most Veo 3 AI videos now get visible watermarks. While there's nothing wrong with posting AI content, it's more important than ever to make the use of AI as transparent as possible.

According to the Capitol Technology University, another thing you should pay attention when trying to spot AI use in videos is looking for unnatural movements. If in a video, a person doesn't walk regularly or eats very weird, it's most likely AI. A third element to watch out for is objects that appear and disappear out of nowhere. This might be one of the easier AI red flags to spot, such as when something in the video blends into something else, and suddenly it's a completely different image.

Capitol Technology University also adds that mismatched audio within a video can be a sign of AI-generated content. This fourth indicator is also easy to spot when someone is speaking but the audio doesn't match the lip movement of what's on the screen. Similar but not quite the same, incorrect background noise is the fifth indication that a video has been AI generated. Imagine you're watching a video that is supposed to depict an urban environment, but when you turn up the sound, the background noise isn't the chaotic city noises you'd expect to hear.

Last but not least, the very best way to avoid confusion when it comes to AI-generated content is to fact check the information yourself. If you spotted any of the issues above, but you're still not sure, search for the content using trustworthy websites. If the video is important enough, you should be able to get confirmation from credible sources in just a few clicks from news articles or official websites.