How to spot deepfake images
UC professor gives tips to WVXU on identifying AI-generated content
As images created by artificial intelligence become more widespread and harder to differentiate from real photos and videos, it’s important for people to be aware of them, a University of Cincinnati professor told WVXU.
Jeffrey Shaffer
Jeffrey Shaffer, the Joseph S. Stern Professor of Practice and assistant professor-educator in UC’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business, has given presentations on AI and will teach a class about it in the fall.
“We have to teach not only how to use AI tools, but what these tools are good at, what the cautionary tales are, what we have to be careful of, because these tools do make mistakes and it can be really bad mistakes,” he said.
AI-generated images include deepfakes, hyper-realistic, digitally manipulated works such as face swaps, audio manipulation, facial reenactments and lip-synching.
To spot deepfakes, Shaffer’s tips include maintaining a basic understanding of AI, being skeptical and using tools that can help spot the fake content.
See more from WVXU about deepfakes and how to identify them.
Featured image at top: Computer chip. Photo/BoliviaInteligente via Unsplash
Innovation Lives Here
The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction. Next Lives Here.
Related Stories
Supreme Court takes another look at Title IX
May 22, 2026
Anne Lofaso, a professor in the University of Cincinnati Donald P. Klekamp College of Law, spoke with Bloomberg Law for a story about the Supreme Court reviewing whether Title IX may allow workers to sue for job bias.
'T. rex of the sea' discovered in Texas
May 22, 2026
UC Associate Professor Takuya Konishi talks to the Dallas Morning News about a new species of mosasaur found in Texas.
UC structural biologists are first in world to visualize key cell protein
May 22, 2026
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine structural biologists are the first in the world to visualize a key cell protein as part of recently published research in the journal Cell Reports.