October 30, 2023

Google has unveiled an “About this image” feature, designed to allow users differentiate images they encounter online.

The feature provides users with a comprehensive image history, insights into how other websites utilize and describe the image, and access to the image’s metadata, all at the simple tap of a button.

This is as a result of the rising sophistication of text-to-image generators. One example of this is the viral image of Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket that circulated online in early 2023. The image was actually generated by an AI, but many people believed it to be real. 

Google says it is responding to this challenge with “About this image,” provides users with crucial image information, such as its history, how other sites use and describe it, and its metadata. The metadata of an image is particularly valuable because it can contain information about who created the image and when, as well as whether it was generated by AI.

This information can be a clear marker that an image is fake. To access the “About this image” tool, users simply need to click on the three dots that appear next to an image in Google Images results or click “more about this page” on the “About this result” tool in search results.

The sources for this piece include an article in ZDNet.