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WhichOneIsReal — Spotting AI Fakes (Basic)
Free foundation course

Spotting AI Fakes

What still works when AI images have stopped being recognisable — and what to do instead. Starts with the same cold, no-hints test everyone gets, then hands you the checks that actually hold up.

Build a verification habit, not a guessing trick

This free AI literacy course focuses on one essential skill: verifying AI-generated images before you trust, share or act on them.

Format
Self-paced
Length
30–35 minutes
Lessons
10 chapters
Access
Free, no account

The focus is AI-generated images — the checks, the behaviour guide, the tools. One closing chapter previews what changes for video and voice. This is focused image-verification training, not a general AI certification.

A free AI awareness training for verifying synthetic media

Spotting AI Fakes is a free AI awareness training and AI literacy course. It teaches a practical verification workflow for AI-generated images: pause, question the context, run a reverse image search, treat detector and metadata results as signals, and check the source before you share or act. A closing deepfake-awareness chapter applies the same habits to AI video and voice, including verifying payment or access requests through a separate trusted channel. It is self-paced and requires no account.

Why "look closer" is no longer the lesson

A convincing generated image may not be identifiable by eye alone. In a 2025 study of 2,000 UK and US consumers, confidence in detecting deepfakes remained above 60%, while only 0.1% correctly distinguished all real and deepfake stimuli across images and videos. This strict all-items-correct result is not an average image-accuracy score. The course therefore starts by measuring how well looking actually works for you, then hands over a four-step behaviour guide and the tools that back it up. Each chapter ends with a short picture check of what you would actually do, and the course ends with a recap.

Ten practical course chapters

  1. 1. How hard is it, really?

    Five images, no context, no hints.

  2. 2. Don't share unchecked

    Rule 1: why a reaction, even a skeptical one, still spreads it.

  3. 3. The human eye

    Rule 2, tool 1: three pairs, find the real one, and which flaws you can actually verify.

  4. 4. Reverse image search

    Tool 2: the strongest single check, and how to run it.

  5. 5. AI detectors & metadata

    Tool 3: a signal, never a verdict.

  6. 6. Check the source

    Tool 4: account age, sender address, forwarding history.

  7. 7. Report misinformation

    Rule 3: using the platform's mechanism, not the comment section.

  8. 8. Respond factually

    Rule 4: how to correct something without it backfiring.

  9. 9. Excursion: AI video & voice

    What changes beyond still images, including off-channel verification.

  10. 10. Recap: what you learned

    Every chapter in one line, next to your own results, plus the one sequence to keep.

Learning objectives

  1. 1. Treat looking as a weak first signal: name a flaw only when you can verify it, treat a hint as a reason to check, and draw no conclusion when there is nothing. Practised in chapter 1, 3 · Scored by 2 picture question(s) in the chapter 3 check
  2. 2. Pause before sharing or reacting to a claim nobody has confirmed. Practised in chapter 2 · Scored by 1 picture question(s) in the chapter 2 check
  3. 3. Use reverse image search to find earlier, dated copies — and read the result correctly, including a real photo with a false caption. Practised in chapter 4 · Scored by 2 picture question(s) in the chapter 4 check
  4. 4. Read detector scores and Content Credentials as signals, never as verdicts. Practised in chapter 5 · Scored by 2 picture question(s) in the chapter 5 check
  5. 5. Check the source — account, sender domain, independent confirmation — before trusting a claim. Practised in chapter 6 · Scored by 1 picture question(s) in the chapter 6 check
  6. 6. Report deliberate deception through the platform, in the category that fits. Practised in chapter 7 · Scored by 1 picture question(s) in the chapter 7 check
  7. 7. Correct misinformation with a specific, checkable reason instead of a verdict — and label your own AI images. Practised in chapter 8 · Scored by 2 picture question(s) in the chapter 8 check
  8. 8. Verify urgent money, credential or access requests off-channel, whoever they seem to come from. Practised in chapter 9 · Scored by 1 picture question(s) in the chapter 9 check

For groups and classrooms

The course is built for one person at a time. To teach it live to a class — you present on the board, students answer the questions on their phones — use Classroom: Spotting AI Fakes (Basic). For just the image quiz as a class game, switch to Simple Quiz there. The measured background to the numbers used here is in our first-party analysis and the detector benchmark.

Questions about the course

Is Spotting AI Fakes free?

Yes. The full course is free and needs no account. Your progress and score are kept only in this browser's local storage, not on our servers, so a reload or a later visit picks up where you stopped, until you clear your browser data. With analytics consent, Google Analytics receives course-event metadata — chapter started, completed or abandoned — the same way it does for the quiz modes; see our privacy policy.

How long does the training take?

About 30–35 minutes across ten chapters: an opening image test with no context, the four-step behaviour guide (three steps get their own chapter; question the context spans four tool chapters) each followed by a short picture check on its own screen, an excursion into AI video and voice with the off-channel verification rule, and a closing recap of what every chapter taught next to your own results.

Can you still recognise AI-generated images by looking at them?

Decreasingly. Dense text, shadows or reflections that contradict each other, contact points and objects that merge where they overlap are still worth checking, but counting fingers and looking for garbled signs is markedly less reliable now. A whole group that looks like one generic template, or food styled like the average menu photo, is a hint worth checking further — not proof, because real photos can look like that too. A flaw you can verify is evidence of generation; finding none is close to no evidence.

Do AI image detectors work?

They are a signal, not a verdict. Detector scores are classifier outputs on a vendor-specific scale, and false positives on genuine photographs are well documented — see our own detector benchmark, linked from the course, for a worked example. There is never 100% certainty, from a detector or otherwise, so a score — however high — should never carry a decision about a real person or real material on its own.

What should employees do about deepfake payment requests?

Verify through a second, independently known channel: call back on a number from your own directory, never one supplied in the message. Make it a standing rule with a fixed threshold and a four-eyes requirement, because a process that expects staff to out-perceive a generator on a live video call is already broken.

What does this course teach?

It teaches a repeatable verification workflow for AI-generated images: pause before reacting, question the context, use reverse image search and detector results carefully, check the source, report misinformation and respond factually. A closing chapter previews how the same instincts extend to video and voice, including verifying high-stakes requests through a separate trusted channel.

Is this a general AI course or a certification?

No. It is a focused, practical module on AI-image verification. It does not cover prompting, building AI systems or every AI-literacy competency, and it does not issue a certificate.

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