A Beader’s Guide to Spotting AI-Generated Beadwork
(Don't forget that you can click on images to enlarge them!)
Let me also mention, that while environmental impact from AI is a major concern, it is not what this particular blog post is about. 😉
Websites we thought we could trust, such as Amazon, Etsy, eBay are riddled with mass produced AI beadwork kits, books, and tutorials.
And not just for newbies who may not yet have the experience to know what beads can and cannot physically do. It's becoming harder for experienced beaders, too, as AI image generators become more and more advanced...like, by the second!
It's most certainly going to be hard for us to keep up.
And my biggest fear is that as these generators learn how to create more realistic-looking images, there is going to come a time when we simply can't tell what they've created from what an actual, living, breathing human beadwork artisan has created.
That is going to be a very sad day! And creates a huge potential for financial loss, both for the buyer being duped by something unobtainable, but also to designers who will eventually suffer the consequences of beaders giving up hope! 😢
But for now, I thought I'd compile a little (okay! a LOT) information that will hopefully help us determine the real deal from the AI-generated.
First, there are the blatantly obvious images where beads are doing things that beads just can't do.
Where's the thread???
Those are the easy ones. Unfortunately, they're not all going to be that easy.
So here are some other things to look for....
1. Follow the Thread Path
This may be one of the best tests we have as beaders.
Pick one small section of the piece and ask yourself:
“Could I actually stitch this?”
In real beadwork, there has to be a physically possible thread path. Beads don't simply attach themselves to one another because that's where they'd look pretty.
Look for:
- Beads that appear connected without any possible thread path.
- A row that begins as peyote and then inexplicably changes structure.
- Beads sitting in positions where they couldn't possibly be supported by the surrounding beads.
- Connections that disappear behind another bead and never logically emerge.
- Components that seem to merge into one another.
- Impossible joins between motifs.
AI can be very good at creating the appearance of intricate beadwork without necessarily understanding how that beadwork would actually have to be constructed.
So don't just look at the design.
Try to mentally bead it.
If you can't figure out how a needle and thread could possibly travel through what you're looking at, take a closer look.
2. Look for Beads That Morph Into Other Beads
This is one of those things that can be really easy to miss
Instead, zoom in and follow a single row of beads.
You may find something that starts out looking like
a seed bead and gradually becomes:
- a crystal
- a pearl
- a drop
- part of the background
- half of another bead
- some strange little blob that isn't any bead you've ever seen in your life
You may also see two neighboring beads partially fused together.
Real beads can overlap visually in a photograph, of course.
But they're still separate physical objects.
A Delica doesn't decide halfway through the necklace that today it identifies as a bicone.
3. LOOK AT THE HOLES!
AI-generated beadwork may contain:
- Holes in impossible locations.
- Some seed beads with visible holes and supposedly identical beads without them.
- Holes that don't correspond with the orientation of the bead.
- Thread entering or exiting somewhere other than a hole.
- Beads that appear to be drilled sideways when that bead is actually drilled lengthwise.
- Two-hole beads with inconsistent hole placement.
Sometimes what looks like a bead hole isn't actually a hole at all. It's basically a dark spot that the generator has learned belongs on something that looks like a bead.
Those of us familiar with beads such as SuperDuos, GemDuos, Tilas and other multi-hole beads have an advantage here.
We know where those holes actually are.
If you see what appears to be a thread or connection coming out of an area of the bead where there is no hole...
Well...
Nope.
Beads haven't learned how to violate the laws of physics yet.
4. Does That Bead Actually Exist?
This is another very bead-specific giveaway.
AI can create a gorgeous little object that looks sort of like:
- a SuperDuo
- a Ginkgo
- a GemDuo
- a PaisleyDuo
- a Czech glass flower
...except it isn't actually any of them.
AI can essentially invent manufactured beads.
And sometimes the giveaway isn't the bead itself, but the fact that supposedly identical beads throughout the design aren't actually identical.
One is pointed. The next has mysteriously become rounded.
Manufactured beads have variations, we certainly all know THAT! but they aren't individually reinvented every time they're placed into a design.
If you don't recognize a bead, that doesn't automatically mean its AI. There are thousands upon thousands of beads out there that we haven't all seen.
But it might be worth asking the designer:
“What bead is that?”
5. Examine the Fringe Carefully
Fringe can apparently be an AI playground.
A beautiful sweep of fringe may look completely
convincing until you stop admiring the whole thing and
trace one individual strand from beginning to end.
Look for strands that:
- disappear
- merge together
- divide into two
- terminate for no apparent reason
- emerge from nowhere
- pass through another strand
- contain impossible bead sequences
- attach to the base in impossible places
The overall fringe may look absolutely spectacular while no individual strand could actually be made the way it's shown.
So, pick a strand. Start at the top. And follow that puppy all the way down. How's is not all falling onto the floor?
6. Look at Bezels Around Cabochons and Crystals
This is another excellent place to investigate. We don't have an endless selection of bead shapes and sizes, and certainly not an array of them to make a curve.
If it's peyote, for example, the bead relationships
and decreases have to work.
Something has to actually secure that cabochon or crystal.
AI can produce a beautiful-looking ring of beads that:
- randomly changes bead count
- contains impossible decreases
- changes from one stitch structure into another
- has beads partially embedded inside the stone
- has no plausible means of holding the cabochon in place
To a non-beader:
Gorgeous!
To a beader:
Wait a minute. How the heck is that stone actually being held in there?
That's exactly the kind of question we should be asking.
Other Telltale Signs
There are plenty of other things that should at least make you stop and take a second look.
Missing body parts!
Egads! They chopped off their arms!
If there's a model wearing the jewelry, count the fingers. Look at the ears. Look at where the necklace actually meets the neck. AI has gotten considerably better at people, so this isn't the giveaway it once was—but bizarre anatomy is still worth noticing.
Not to mention...could those AI models be anymore flawless. I mean, c'mon! Freckles aren't that bad, are they?
It basically looks too good to be true.
Now, be careful with this one!
There are some phenomenal bead artists out there creating work that absolutely DOES look too good to be true.
So “Wow, that's amazing!” is certainly not evidence of AI.
But combine that with impossible construction, mysterious beads, nonsensical thread paths and other inconsistencies?
AI loves color and sparkle and can throw an extraordinary number of subtly different colors into something that supposedly uses manufactured beads.
The stitches mentioned don't match the image.
If the listing says you're buying a peyote-stitch tutorial and you're staring at something that clearly couldn't have been made using peyote stitch...ask yourself why!
So...Who Do We Buy From?
Now, what I would like to say—because it would make this whole thing super simple—is:
Just buy from established designers you recognize.
Buy from people you've purchased from before. Designers whose names you've seen frequently on Planet Bead. People you've watched teach. People whose work you've seen other beaders make.
But...
That's really not fair to new and up-and-coming designers.
Every established designer was an unknown designer at some point.
And I think new designers deserve our love and support, too. 💜
So rather than automatically deciding that an unfamiliar designer must be selling AI-generated work, I'd suggest stopping for a moment before clicking that:
BUY ME NOW BECAUSE YOU LOVE ME BUTTON
...and send the seller an email or message first.
