By Stephanie Bearce
Halloween just ended, so the yard monsters are melting into snowmen, and the house ghosts are letting Elf on the Shelf have his turn. (Personally, I find Elf on the Shelf terrifying, but that’s another story.) However, one big bad boogeyman isn’t taking a break, and that’s Artificial Intelligence.
Now, I am not someone who is morally opposed to AI. I find it is a useful tool for some aspects of work. But I am an advocate for AI awareness. Especially when it comes to research and getting the facts straight. The magical tools available to help create movies, music, and social media can also be manipulated to alter documents and spread false narratives. As a nonfiction author, I must be doubly careful when I research. It’s made fact-checking more difficult and tedious, and twice as necessary. Honestly, it can feel a bit overwhelming.
And that’s where my overactive imagination kicks in to help out. It’s me versus the world of AI fakes, and I’m The Spy for truth, justice, and an impeccably researched story.
Yeah, I know. I’m a 12-year-old kid at heart, but I figure some of you writers are the same. So grab your magnifying glass and my list of AI detectors, and you’ll have more fun digging for the truth, too.
One of the best tools for sorting through information is the SIFT method developed by Mike Caulfield. The acronym stands for STOP, INVESTIGATE, FIND, and TRACE. This is easy for most researchers. We automatically stop to question everything we see or read. We investigate whether it comes from a reputable, verifiable site. If it’s questionable, we try to find better coverage and trace it to the original source.
Here are some trusted tools that make fact-checking easier. Using them definitely feels like being a spy, ferreting out inaccurate information and AI-generated images.
Claims and Viral Stories
Images and Video
Websites, Studies, and the Past
And if you want to do a little more spy training, here are some sites that will equip you to find the fakes!
Northwestern’s guide, “How to Distinguish AI-Generated Images from Authentic Photographs” (illustrated PDF)
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2406.08651v1
News Literacy Project: “Which archival video is AI generated?”
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/which-archival-video-is-ai-generated
FactCheckNI: “How to spot fake AI images” (video plus written guide)
https://factchecking.ie/toolkit/how-to-spot-fake-ai-images
The News Literacy Project’s free “AI or not?” lesson plan (https://newslit.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AI-or-not_Lesson-Plan.pdf)
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