The dozen or so seniors in a Maryland classroom faced a simple challenge. Tomba Kambui, their instructor, pointed to a pair of photos on a computer screen. He asked the room: “Which one is the AI-generated image?”

The first set was easy; someone quickly noted that a woman’s head was distorted in one photo. So was the second - there were two Eiffel Towers in a tourist’s selfie. Then Kambui scrolled to a third pair of photos.

“How about this one?” he said. “This one’s a little harder.”

The room fell silent. Everyone squinted and leaned in to look closer. The two photos of women typing at computers were startlingly lifelike, without any obvious tells of AI distortion. Kambui finally pointed out the smallest oddity in one woman’s fingers.

“When it comes to identifying AI images … look at d

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