How to Spot AI-Generated Video

Start with provenance rather than trying to diagnose pixels alone. Find the account that first posted the clip, the earliest available upload, and any longer or higher-quality version. Check the caption, date, location, and whether reputable sources report the same event. Reposts can remove context, crop out watermarks, or add subtitles that change the apparent meaning. A real video can be misleadingly edited, and a synthetic clip can be posted as satire or fiction. If you inspect the visuals, look for inconsistencies across time. Hands, teeth, jewelry, signs, and background objects may change shape or position between frames. Text may be unstable. A person may appear to touch an object without consistent contact, or a shadow or reflection may not track the scene. These are clues, not a checklist that always works: compression, motion blur, low light, camera movement, and ordinary editing can create similar defects. Listen as well as watch. Lip motion, room acoustics, background noise, and the timing of impacts may not fit the scene. But dubbing and postproduction also create mismatches in authentic footage. Inspect the clip at normal speed and frame by frame, while remembering that slowing video can make normal motion appear strange. Avoid drawing conclusions from one screenshot or one artifact. Look for technical context where available. Original files may contain metadata, but social platforms often strip or rewrite it, so missing metadata proves little. Provenance credentials can record origin and editing history when present and intact, but they are not a universal detector and can be absent from genuine media. Detection tools produce estimates that depend on their training data and may fail on new models or transformed footage. Before publishing an accusation, seek independent corroboration and give the source a chance to clarify.