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WSJ Tech News Briefing · Saturday, August 15, 2026

Zooming in: A simple trick to spot AI-generated image flaws

Megan, the deputy photo director at The Wall Street Journal, shares a practical tip for identifying AI-generated images: zoom in and look for anomalies, particularly with hands and limbs. She highlights that AI often struggles with rendering these details correctly.

personMegancompanyThe Wall Street Journal

The tape

3 quotes
The easiest way is really to zoom in and really look at the image. You will often find some anomalies there.
Megan
One good example is they're not very good at rendering hands or limbs.
Megan
There's an image of European leaders sitting in the hallway outside of the office. That was shared around social media. And it did, for first glance, look like a smartphone photo and something that was real and happening in real time. But when you zoom in, you'll notice that there are more legs than people.
Megan
Heard on WSJ Tech News Briefing — “To Spot AI Fakes, Think Like a Digital Forensics Expert, published Saturday, August 15, 2026. Heardvine summarizes and quotes with attribution and timestamps, and links to the original everywhere.
Transcribed via Gemini audio transcription · $0.04
Zooming in: A simple trick to spot AI-generated image flaws — Heardvine