Google's Image Search Is Flooded With AI-Generated Images

Is the internet killing itself? What is Google’s solution on AI-generated images flooding the internet?

Today, I saw a Reddit post that showed a screenshot of a Google Image result for “baby peacock.” 

The post was captioned “The human internet is dying… “ because almost all the images displayed are AI-generated.

Image from Reddit

Intrigued and a bit alarmed, I decided to verify it myself. I quickly Googled the term, and there it was—a flood of AI-generated images dominating the search results.

In another Reddit thread, a user expressed frustration about the difficulty of finding genuine reference images for their artwork because the search results are inundated with AI-generated content.

“It also takes so much longer to find anything good or usable trying to get through all the AI images, and I feel like all the nice art and photos I used to find are drowned out by ugly distorted AI crap that btw for some reason has all the same style making it even more boring.”

This isn’t just a quirky internet anomaly; it’s a growing concern that raises important questions: How did we get here, and what can we do to mitigate this problem?

This was not the case a few months ago.

AI image and video generators seem to be the culprit of this rising amount of AI-generated content on the internet.

According to a report from European law enforcement group Europol, experts estimate that as much as 90 percent of online content may be synthetically generated by 2026.

At this rate, you have all the reasons to not believe everything you see on the internet.

Even stock photo websites like Adobe Stock and Shutterstock, once reliable sources for authentic photographs, are no longer immune. 

Image by Jim Clyde Monge

Ever since they allowed AI-generated images on their platforms, finding real photos has become really challenging.

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In this article, I’ll give details on the following topics:

1. Why is Google showing a bunch of AI-generated images in the search results?

2. The impact on regular and professional users.

3. Google’s solution on AI-generated images is flooding the internet.

4. Details on Google’s “About this image” and SynthID feature.

5. How to report AI-generated images.

6. Tips to get rid of AI-generated content on Google Image search.

7. Final thoughts

Let’s get started.