Spotting AI deepfakes a ‘cat and mouse game,’ top expert warnsResearchers behind a new deepfake detection program have found that AI-generated faces have become so convincing that real people now look suspicious.David Hannant5 min readJuly 12, 2026 - 3:30PMNewsWire• This article includes a range of photographs of people. As you read, try to guess which ones are real and which are AI-generated.The expert behind a new training program designed to help people debunk AI deepfakes has admitted we find ourselves in a “cat and mouse game” with the advancing technology.Australian National University has launched a new scheme that it says makes people about 40 per cent better at rooting out AI-generated faces from shots of human beings.But the lead researcher behind the program has admitted that it is only a matter of time before the technology figures out new ways of not getting caught out.The cutting-edge program begins with participants being given an identity parade of mugshots, some AI and some real, and tasks them with rooting out the real from the fake.Photograph 1Participants are then given a short course on how to spot the differences, then asked to repeat the task at the end.Others you may likenewsnewsLead researcher Amy Dawel said the end result was about a 40 per cent improvement in people’s recognition skills.“We have found that even people who are super recognisers do not do as well as they expect in the first instance,” Professor Dawel said. “We generally find people are surprised by quite how terrible they are at it and how much they improve. “The more confident they are, the more mistakes they tend to make.”Photograph 2Professor Dawel said the task had become increasingly difficult as the technology advanced, with AI-generated images getting tougher and tougher to spot.She said gone were the days of simple telltale signs such as extra fingers on hands or non-matching earrings.“AI-generated faces are generally very average looking and do not stand out from the crowd, which can also make them look more attractive,” she said. “This has meant real people have actually become terrible at detecting AI gens.”The research project behind the training has uncovered six tricks to rooting out the fakes: distinctiveness, memorability, proportionality, symmetry, attractiveness and expressiveness.Professor Dawel said symmetry in particular was a strong sign that an image was AI.“AI generated faces tend to be far more symmetrical, while real people tend to be more quirky and have individual characteristics,” she added.Photograph 3Photograph 4Cat and mouse gameProfessor Dawel said it is getting more and more important for people to be able to root out AI deep fakes due to the ways the technology is being taken advantage of in darks corners of the web.She said it is estimated that AI fraud is predicted to cost the global economy 40 billion US dollars by the end of next year.“There are so many ways AI generated faces are being used and abused, whether that is cat-fishing on dating sites, accessing bank accounts or counterfitting passports,” she said.“People are also in a position now where they can hide behind it and claim that things that are actually real are deep fakes.“Being able to tell the difference is so important.”However, the associate Professor also admitted that as we get better at detecting deep fakes, AI technology will inevitably also get better at not getting caught out.“I think it is definitely a cat-and-mouse game and there is no real getting away from that,” she added.“But equally, while AI itself is getting better, so too are AI detectors, but human psychology is also an important thing to keep relying on.”Photograph 5‘Getting harder and harder’Professor Toby Walsh, from the University of NSW, said the rapidly advancing technology was forcing people to regularly question what is in front of them.“The real difficulty is that we cannot really believe our own eyes anymore,” he said. “I think we are going to keep on seeing things that are not real but also questioning things that are real at the same time.“The way to combat this is with education but also with digital watermarks.”Digital watermarks are invisible, machine-readable identifiers attached to files such as a photograph that reveal its origin.Professor Walsh said these could potentially become the only way of telling apart the real from the deepfake as the technology continues to advance.“It really is getting harder and harder to tell real and fake apart, the technology is advancing so quickly,” he said.“Another problem is that it is giving people a way to escape accountability. “There are politicians who have said and done awful things only to dismiss them as deepfakes – which is all their supporters need to hear to believe them.”Photograph 6‘Arms race’Adelaide University associate professor in computer sciences Wolfgang Mayer said the advancement in AI technology had been brought about through competitiveness among some of the world’s largest tech firms.“It has come such a long way in the past few years and I think that is down to an arms race between big tech companies who are all determined to be the best and producing the most content,” he said.“Clearly, they’re not setting out to create deepfakes, but it is an obvious by-product of the technology being available.“The technology is there and easy to use, for both the good and the bad.”He added that there was a greater need for people to learn to question sources of what they see online.“Teaching people how to spot deepfakes is a useful thing to do in the short term, but in the long run it’s far more important to raise awareness of the fact that not everything you see online is real,” Professor Mayer said.He added that the technology had advanced to a point where rooting it out was about looking at what was not there rather than what was there.“Deepfakes are almost becoming too perfect,” he said. “We used to easily be able to tell from things like eyes, mouths or teeth, for example. Now you almost need to look for what is not there, blemishes that exist in real people.”Photograph 7What does AI say?While the university experts have shared tips for spotting AI-generated faces, would the technology also be prepared to show its hand?NewsWire turned to Google’s Gemini AI chatbot to request some tips that provided several telltale signs.• Hands and feet – look for extra fingers, missing knuckles, unnaturally long digits or hands that morph into objects being heldMore CoverageAI firms stealing music from Aussie iconsDavid Hannant• ‘Plastic’ or airbrushed skin – look for natural imperfections such as press, fine lines, moles and subtle blemishes to find a real person. AI images can often look like heavy beauty filters• ‘Spaghetti’ hair – look closely at where the hairline meets the forehead. AI often struggles with realistic hair rootsThe chatbot added that the most effective way to spot a fake was to make sure you looked closely. “When trying to spot an AI image, always zoom in,” it said. “AI images look incredibly convincing as thumbnails on a smartphone screen, but zooming in by 200 per cent to 300 per cent on the eyes, ears and hands almost always reveal the digital seams.”To register an interest in the training, visit https://tinyurl.com/ai-face-study-register • Photograph 3 is Professor Dawel, photograph 5 is Professor Mayer and photograph 7 is Professor Walsh. All the rest were generated using StyleGAN3 and are not real people. 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