Which Image is Real? The Blue Angels

Below are 4 images.

Only one is real. I know this because I took it myself.

My photo is of the Blue Angels in formation in the blue skies over central Florida.

The other 3 images are AI-generated. I created them using Ideogram.ai and ChatGPT.

Which one do you think is the real image? See the answer below!

The real image of the Blue Angels is:

Image #2

Some clues that give away the AI images:

🛩️ 1. Formation Looks Just Slightly Imperfect — Which Is a Good Thing

• #2 (REAL): The planes are in tight formation, but not perfectly aligned — especially around the nose-to-wingtip spacing. This slight asymmetry is exactly what you’d expect in a real high-speed aerial maneuver.
• AIArtificial Intelligence (AI) is basically when computers get smart—really smart. Imagine if your c... More Images:
  • #1: The bottom two planes are oddly offset — their formation doesn’t follow typical Blue Angels choreography.
  • #3 and #4: The formations are too perfect — planes are spaced like copy-paste shapes, often a giveaway of AI-generated images.

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☁️ 2. Clouds and Sky

• #2 (REAL): The sky is mostly clear with natural color gradient, and no clouds — consistent with many actual aerial photography conditions.
• AI Images:
  • #3 and #4: Clouds look too soft, overly smooth, or repeated. They resemble digital textures more than real weather patterns.

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🔥 3. Smoke Trails

• #2: No smoke trails — and that’s okay. The Blue Angels don’t always use them, especially in photos taken just before or after maneuvers.
• #3 and #4: The smoke looks off:
  • In #3, it appears too clean and detached from the jets.
  • In #4, the smoke is barely visible and blends unnaturally with the sky, like it was brushed on afterward.

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🔢 4. Tail Numbers and Details

• #2 (REAL): The aircraft have visible tail numbers — you can clearly see a “5” and a “6,” with others positioned correctly.
• AI Images:
  • #1: No visible tail numbers at all.
  • #3 and #4: Tail numbers are overly sharp or duplicated.

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🧠 5. Plane Design Details

#3 and #4: Some proportions feel slightly distorted, particularly around the nose and rear fins.gularities. Slight warping and asymmetry are signs of a real photo.

#2: The aircraft appear accurately shaped, with proper shadowing and reflection under the wings and fuselage.

AI Images:

#1: The wing shapes are inconsistent — especially between the bottom two planes.

Get Inside the Cockpit With the Blue Angels

Seeing the Blue Angels in person gets your blood pumping. It’s truly and awe-inspiring sight to behold. Being in the cockpit takes things to a whole nother level! I expect neither you nor I will have the experience, so this video is the closest we’ll get. And, quite frankly, that’s good enough for me!

More From the Senior Tech Cafe ‘Real or AI?’ Challenge

You can check out our archive of ‘Real or AI?’ challenges here