How well did you do on this week's trivia?

Welcome, humans! Every Thursday, we test our readers' AI skills, BS detectors, and AI sensing sensibilities with our weekly Thursday Trivia challenge. Here's how it works: we show you two images side-by-side — one real, one AI-generated — and ask you to spot the fake.

It sounds simple, but as AI image generation gets scary good, telling the difference has become a genuine skill. Our readers have become surprisingly sharp at catching the subtle tells that give away AI-generated content: weird shadows, impossible reflections, too-perfect skin, or hands that look like they were designed by someone who's never actually seen a human hand.

Each week, we collect your votes and reasoning, then reveal which image fooled you (or didn't). The best part? Reading everyone's detective work in the comments. From "the cat's pupils are wrong for the lighting" to "no real photographer would choose a spotted banana for their shoot," our community has developed an impressive eye for AI artifacts.

Whether you're a seasoned AI detective or still learning to spot the fakes, Thursday Trivia has become our favorite way to track how both AI generation and human detection skills evolve. Plus, it's just plain fun to see who gets tricked by a floating camel or a too-perfect banana.

Ready to see how you stacked up against fellow AI detectives? Below are the results from our recent Thursday Trivia challenges.

September 18

How'd you do on this week's trivia? 

Here are the results: 

Answer: You got it WRONG! A is real (hard to believe, I know).

Here's what you said:

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September 11

How'd you do on this week's trivia? 

Here are the results: 

Answer: You got it RIGHT! A was AI (made via Seedream 4.0, from ByteDance, which is absolutely unreal... just look at this collection of stills. We STILL can't believe some of these are AI generated). TBH, we have no idea how y'all called this so definitively...

Here's what you said:

• H.J chose A: “Eyes expression and hair texture don't look natural."‍
• J.F chose B: “Kitten was too perfect.” (that was a cute kitten wasn't it??).
• J.C chose A: "Dog lighting and expression seems off to me, for reasons that are... gut instincts?”
• B.B chose B: “I've heard the human brain can't tell what's real and what isn't. That explains why athletes and other performers improve without actually practicing when they run through their routines only in their heads.”
• D.D. chose A: “A is wooden.”
• D.L chose B: "Something bothers me about cat sitting on grass. They normally roam about and chew on them. Maybe this one is AI."
• N.P chose A: “Depth of field looks too perfect.”
• C.C chose B: “Cats are figments of an AI's imagination, only dogs are really, sorry but thems the facts.” (we can't accept this take for obvious reason, but it IS funny...).
• K.P. chose A: "No idea. I just hope the kitten is real.”
• G.K. chose B: “A just looks too real.”
• N.L chose A: “Puppy size seems smaller, and proportions of animal are off."
• M.H chose B: "I'd say B is AI because of the cats whiskers that appear over the grass 🤔 but shadows seems a bit off in image A as well..."
• S.W chose A: “A looked to professional. Dog totally in focus and background blurred out - all a bit too perfect! Cat just looked like a standard photo.”
• L.W chose A: "A's lack of focus in foreground and background in a geometric elliptical shape vs B's focus on the cat , lack of focus in background, and mostly in focus foreground being more linear."
• M.L chose B: "grass in B looks AI generated."
• K.C chose A: "Dog's tail looks like a weird angle."
• V.C chose B: "Just feel like ai would have messed up the leaves, especially the browned and crumpled ones.”
• H.S chose A: “The shallow depth of field and the resulting bokeh looks very representative of AI shenanigans.”
• F.H chose B: "While A is definitely touched up and edited, the lighting on B is way off b/c ray tracing is hard.” (don't be so sure!)
• D.L chose A: “Photographs taken with a real camera usually are not that flawless.” (the ultimate giveaway... too perfect...).
• D.S. chose A: As a photographer, the overexposed areas of image B is a reality much of the time. The lighting in image A looks a bit too good for a sunny environment."
• B.M chose A with our favorite reason: “How can a kitten not be4 real?" (Amen!)

September 4

How'd you do on this week's trivia? 

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Here are the results: 

Answer: You got it... wrong! But this one was really close! A is AI, and B is real (a screen cap from Grant’s favorite YouTube channel, Aloha Got Soul, a Honolulu record label store that features awesome DJ sets from their record store, always intermixing well-known classics, underground hip hop, and local Hawaiian artists; this one is specifically from the Talib Kweli DJ set... definitely check them out!).

Here's what you said:

• For the folks who got it wrong, here's why: 
  
  • P.R chose B: "It might be both. But B looks a little more edited from the fishbowl effect around the records in the back."
  • O.P chose B: "tough one." 
  • P.G chose B: "B= blurry."
  • L.B chose B: "The guy holding the camera's other hand looks off."
  • T.K chose B: "If you look closely in A the guy beside the cat is pointing at him, in B his finger is removed."
    
    • (if you think of these comments in reverse, this means AI added a finger!) 
  • J.G chose B: "The cat sticks out so much and the contrarian that I am makes me feel like that’s probably a trap into making me think it’s fake. So A is probably real."
    
    • So meta... but you basically fell for our trap! 
  • K.C chose B: "Record unreadable, person taking phone photo weird hands, gibberish on dj equipment."
    
    • Really goes to show how much Nano Bananas cleaned up the original screen shot! 
• For those who got it right? Ultimately, the cat killed the curiosity: 
  
  • A.P chose A and nailed it: “Cat inserted has to be AI.”
    
  • So did M.M: “For me it is the placement of Tigger in the picture.”
  • As did G.Z, who said A “Makes no sense.”
  • And M.R added: “Mostly cause I know you guys like cats!"
  • And then A.L chimed in: “Why would a person in a cat suit be there? It just seems out of place. It's obviously the feline fur-end that greets us at the beginning of every email.”
  • As D.L said: "Nice try".

We were worried this one would be too obvious, so we're happy it stumped people! 

August 28

How'd you do on this week's trivia? 

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Here are the results: 

Answer: B is AI (made with Nano Banana!), and A is real.

Here's what you said:

• The banana misled some of you: 
  
  • G.B chose A: "The uniform yellow color of banana seems unreal."
  • G.C. chose A: "The tip of the banana shows aging."
  • L.M chose A: "Because First Banana has spots - no Real Photographer will choose to have Spotted Banano on his shoot!"
  • C.P chose A: "Shadow on the banana is more convincing to me. In either case the damn cat looks like a taxidermist's model. :)"
• Then again, the banana was also the key for some of you: 
  
  • B.S chose B: "A is real. I can see the black marks on the side of the banana."
  • N.S. chose B: "cat's pupils wrong for lighting environment; banana colour seemed off."
  • S.D chose B: "The banana in A has real blemishes, the one in B is too perfect.”
  • And bonus points for L.U who (rightly) called us out! “Using a green banana seems like a prompter trying too hard to disguise AI.” Ouch... but spot on.
• Looks like the eyes gave it away: 
  
  • G.Z chose B: "Pupil size."
    
  • C.W chose B: "The eyes!"
  • E.F chow B: "B eyes look too perfect."
• Then again, the eyes also misled some people: 
  • F.G chose B: "The pupils are round in cat A, but diamond shaped in cat B. Everyone knows pupils are round."
  • R.S chose A: "the eyes and the banana."
  • S.E chose A: "In A the eyes are wide."
• Some of you tried to outsmart the AI: 
  
  • M.E chose A: "going against my rational thoughts, becuase Ai is a sneaky mf."
  • C.F chose A: "is the AI in the room with us?"

August 21

How'd you do on this week's trivia? 

Here are the results: 

Answer: You got it RIGHT! B was AI, and A was real... This one was close, but you can tell because Leo's face in the fake one looks more like his older face than what he actually looked like back in the day.

Here's what you said:

• A.P chose B: “B looks too polished. A is gritty. ”
• J.Y. chose A: “The placement of some arms and individuals in the first picture seem off, while the second picture does appear more natural and life like.”
• C.D chose B: "the scalloped awnings are weird, red neon sign is unreadable and he looks too much like a photoshopped portrait."
• K.C chose A: “What is up with that hat?"
• J.C chose B: “A should be real, because AI ought to have some self respect and enough pride to do a good job and not try to trick us with fake damage.”
• Z.P chose A: “A is nicely done, you want to believe the "rip" in the photo is real, but it's just not... it also appears he doesn't fit as well into the setting, which could make it more real, but the feeling of him being there is off. The other very easily could be real, but it feels "too perfect" to be AI - his blending. I've gone back and forth a bunch of times and not confident in this choice.”
• T.A chose B: “facial expressions in A were varied and their gaze was all over the place. B was more focused and predictable.”
• M.W chose A: "The small amount of text I see is illegible."‍
• N.E chose B: “The words in the neon sign don’t look accurate”
• T.W chose A: "Too many random unsupported arm positions and random BG objects plus no eye contact."‍
• D.B chose B: "Text in the back left doesn't look right, hands out of sight or slightly off. If A is AI, it is fascinating how it imitates the aging and blemishes."
• D.M. chose A: "Wanted to choose B due to shiny prettiness..but the more I looked at A, some people not smiling I get, but the guy in the back on the right looking off seems odd. People in the middle also seem off."
• D.S chose A: “The guy in the top right corner has "the AI face". I have seen that face a number of times when using AI to request images of groups of people.”‍
• S.B chose B: “REALLY, A.I.n’t we BEen FOoled by di CAP rio eN.U.ff.”

August 14

How'd you do on this week's trivia?

Here are the results: 

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Answer: B was AI! You got it ... correct! Although we gotta say, this one was closer than we anticipated (we thought the detail of the close up cat "hand" would give it away...).

Here's what you said:

• For folks who chose A:
  
  • S.H. chose A: “At first I thought A was real, because of stray hairs. Then I realised that young men would find it hilarious to set up a cat photo like this, and there is something slightly blurred about the cat too, as if the photographer's hand shook a little due to stifled laughing.”
  • ‍B.S chose A: “The lateral nail is misplaced.”
  • C.H chose A: “A cat fur on control was not straight ”
  • ‍M.I chose A: “A looks visually better”
  • ‍B.A. chose A: “claws weren't coming from the central toes... kind of in between. And the hair looked off. Besides, cat in the bottom picture looked pissed off... seemed real. ;-)”
• ‍And those who chose B: 
  
  • M.P chose B: “Bits of dust and hair feel real”
    S.H chose B: “keyboard is fuzzy (when it shouldn't be), you can make out that its not qwerty layout (barely)”
  • C.C. chose B: “The keyboard does not look readable and every letter appears to be the same.” 
  • J.B chose B: “can see the cat hairs on the controller and furniture”
  • ‍C.D chose B: “shadow area behind the monitor gave it away, but the cat, bottle, screen and keyboard? I’m impressed!!”
  • N.H. chose B: “This one was easy, but once AI figures out the real world has cat hair flying around, wear and tear on controllers, uneven fabric parts, and other things, [in other words, it dirty] we'll really be in for it.”
  • T.R chose B: “The headset in B is so tiny, so unless that's an infant's headset (!!!), I think it's AI. The random cat hairs on the game controller also make A feel real.”
• Some called out the cat actor as sus: 
  
  • S.D chose B: “How would the cat HOLD the coke bottle?”
  • K.P chose B: “No real reason, but none of my five cats would let anyone to shove a coke on their lips long enough to take the picture. Dogs are more agreeable.” 
  • D.C chose B:
  • “I have seen cats do things similar to A. I have yet to find a cat the will allow headphones.” 
• ‍B.D chose B, buuut…: “I'm pretty sure both are real”

August 7

How'd you do on this week's trivia?

Here are the results: 

Answer: A was AI, and b was real! YOU NAILED IT!! 

Those robocats don't have NOTHING on y'all!‍

Here's what you said: 

First the folks who got it wrong...

• J.F chose B: "I was going to chose A because of the soft lighting and concerns about the reflection in A. Until I saw a blurry “smudge” near the hindquarters of the cat in B that blurred the cat and background."
• L.S chose B: "The background for B just seems fake somehow."
• N.K. chose B: "detail in reflection”

Now for the folks who got it right...

• J.C. chose A: “Richer colours in the second. Less variation in the tones in the first.”
• A.M. chose A: "The eyes look weird. Too smooth"
• L.S. chose A: "Obvious to anyone who knows cats!”

July 31

How'd you do on this week's trivia?

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Here are the results: 

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Answer: B was AI, and A was real! You were RIGHT! 

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Here's what you said: 

• Some of you had compelling (but wrong) reasons to pick A as AI...
  
  
  • N.S chose A: "A is fuzzier, which I've noticed happens when you ask ChatGPT to create a new image off of a real one you've uploaded."
  • J.P chose A: "Stop sign is too high."
  • R.L chose A: "That stop sign is way too high compared to the other street sign."
• And some of you picked B, but couldn't put your finger on why...
  
  • D.S chose B: “Missing stop sign in B, as if AI removed it.”
  • M.M chose B: “Fingers on the phone”
• For those who saw the key difference, a lot of people were confused on what animal it was...
  
  • C.W chose B: "Dinosaur" (is it a dinosaur or a llama? lol).
  • D.C. chose B: "weird dinosaur where the stop sign was?"
  • S.S chose B: “Stop sign rather than what looks like dinosaur head.”
  • B.M chose B: "Looks like there is a dinosaur in the B picture where we see a stop panel on A"
  • E.S chose B: "animal instead of stop sign” (so you too were confused as to what animal it was!)
  • L.P chose B: "“llama vs. stop sign” (we also thought it was a Llama...)
  • K.K chose B: "Giraffe instead of stop sign"
  • W.B chose B: “AI’s Jurassic park party didn’t fool me” (dinosaur really was the most popular answer..)
• Finally people figured it out it was a camel...
  
  • A.D chose B: “is that... a floating camel?”
  • S.H chose B: "Stop the camel!"
  • T.K chose B: "“I'm not sure that a camel would be in the background”
  • G.L chose B: "There is a camel in the background of B, A has a stop sign instead.” (this is the most literally correct answer.
  • C.C. chose B: "“I am fairly sure that security would not let me bring my pet camel to a gig even if it is my emotional support animal."
  • B.Y chose A: "I was there, I was the camel"‍

July 24th (most recent)

How'd you do on this week's trivia?

Answer: A is AI, and B is real… we think.

‍P.S: we totally forgot the poll on this day (so no results to share)... sorry about that one! 

July 17th

How'd you do on this week's trivia?

Here are the results: 

Answer: B was AI... you got it right! 

Here's what you said:

• M.G chose B: “A appears to show real detail in sync with the lighting and surroundings.”
• A.C chose A: "The level of detail in the background of b makes me think it's real.”
• J.S. chose B: “I liked that the sunglasses' shadow on the life jacket was uneven. I didn't like where the guy's hand was on the door. But still it always seems like a crap shoot as to whether I will be right or wrong.”
• N.H chose B: “a’s shadow was spot on”

July 10th

How'd you do on this week's trivia?

Here are the results:

The answer: A is AI and B is real... you got it WRONG! 

Here's what you said: 

• S.H chose A: "The characters in A seem just too perfect - perfect skin, perfect synchronisation of facial expression, perfectly shiny hair. In B, someone has knobbly knuckles and someone else has a couple of tiny moles."
• T.C. chose B: “B: some weird teeth, weird ear”
• J.M chose B: “One person in A has slight freckles” (Oh no... AI can do freckles now!!) 
• S.D chose B: "Lighting in B is too even, no realistic shadows.”
• S.G chose B: “The faces are way too close together. They are evenly spaced which is odd”
• T.A. chose A: "A looks like midjourney.” (This guy MidJourneys...) 

July 3rd

How'd you do on this week's trivia?

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Here are the results: 

Answer: B was AI. You called this miles away.

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Here's what you said: 

• First, the B team: 
  
  • J.N chose B: “It seems artificial brightness in B. A looks more natural. But may be AI is really better than my eyes"
    
  • R.M chose B: “Lady looks too perfect to be real.”
    
  • S.H chose B: “Only made that guess because the reflections in the first image were complex and no obvious glitches."
• And for those who chose A: 
  
  • E.W chose A: “The restaurant sign's font is very AI.”
  • B.A. chose A: "Telephone pole with no wires going to it in the reflection. It looks great with transformer and everything... but no wires and facing 90 degrees to the wires that are showing. Kinda funny
  • Reflections threw you off too: 
    
    • P.M: “Reflections in the window would read backwards ”
    • A.H: “The reflection looks wrong”
    • S.W: “Reflections!”

• And some of you really gave us too much credit:
  
  • E.A: "Well, JuanCarlos is a real person and a Jersey Mike's franchisee. Dodge Lynn sounds like a totally fake name and it's weird that the cashier would be dressed like a waiter. Plus her skin is very smooth... The JuanCarlos image also has a "associated press" watermark... But I just presume you're trying to trick me, so I picked the opposite of my instinct... AI already has me doing this, so there's absolutely no trust in the screens anymore whatsoever in any setting under any circumstance."
  • A.G: “B is so simple that it would be easy for AI. A is so visually complex it would be harder. However, I think you're trying to trick us into guessing incorrectly, so I said B is real and A is AI. ”

June 25th

How’d you do on this week’s trivia?

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Here are the results:

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Answer: You got it WRONG! A was AI (from MidJourney), and B is real.

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Here’s what you said:

• The glasses gave A is away for some of you:
  • J.L chose A: “The reflection in the glasses isn't correct.”
  • S.S chose A: “Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, but I couldn't see her hands reflected in her glasses”
• Honestly good call out on this, but alas, it was real:
  • T.B chose B: “The hand railings are going different directions on the same set of stairs.”
• Some of you straight ROASTED the real model:
  • C.D chose B: “The tattoos extended too far.”
  • L.B chose B: “the thumb is really weird....” (lol that’s just his thumb!)
• And bonus points to these two who caught A by the tiniest details:
  • N.D.: “The buttons on the blouse are on the panel that is on the outside??
  • D.G: “The hair on person from picture A seems to be fusing with the human's scalp. That's the only thing that made me certain.”

June 12th

How did you do on this week's trivia?

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Here are the results: 

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Answer: A is AI, and B is real. This one felt close at first, but you saw right through it.

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Here's what you said: 

• D.T chose A: “Left half looks nordic, while right half looks european” (bonus points for geographical call out!)
• N.P.H chose B: “Honestly not sure, the quality of the ground in picture A seemed too complicated for AI generation”
• Most people were tipped off by the shadows: 
  
  • S.C chose A: "Shadow from small tree leaning to left seems wrong."
  • T.C. chose A: "Shadow is inconsistent with location of sun." 
  • G.H chose B: "Shadows." (right idea, wrong choice!)
• C.N chose A: "looks like someone typed in "show me a fisheye image of a walking path next to a lagoon" (they even called the prompt!)
• L.W chose A: "Saw this on Reddit so I cheated." Wow, looks like we need to diversify our sources :P

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June 5th

How did you do on this week's trivia?

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Here are the results from last week’s poll:

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Answer: A was AI. This one was pretty close! 

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Here’s what you said:

• A.P chose A: “In A there are two left hands” (nice catch!)
• E.B. chose B: “This is difficult. I made a wild guess.”
• J.T. chose A: “Saw the movie ;)”
• D.F. chose B: “Who holds a screwdriver like that and why have a sticker over your product name…that’s why this one seems fake.” (here’s your answer!)
• S.K chose A: “I'm going to be in trouble when AI learns how text works in images. It has mostly figured out hands now.”

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May 29th

How did you do on this week's trivia?

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Here are the results: 

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Answer: A was AI. You called it, by a loooong shot.

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Here’s what you said:

• M.M chose A: “The eye wrinkles look generated.”
• J.S chose B: “B appears to be an artificial facial expression... exaggerated in many regards.”
• C.C chose A: “I am thinking A is the AI but this is really getting harder every week. Possibly because there is too much smoothing on the skin and the model's right eye wrinkles don't quite match the left. Other than that I am guessing.”

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