Which is the Real Image? Japanese Koi Fish

Below are 4 images.

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

My photo is of a Japanese Koi Fish taken at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

The other 3 images are AI-generated. I created them using Ideogram.ai and ChatGPTChatGPT is an advanced language model developed by OpenAI, designed to understand and generate human... More.

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

The real image of the koi is:

Image #3

Some clues that give away the AI images:

🌊 1. Water Distortion and Reflections

• #3 (REAL): The water is slightly murky, and there’s a subtle distortion over the fish’s head from the water’s surface tension. It also has natural light scattering and particles suspended in the water.
• AIArtificial Intelligence (AI) is basically when computers get smart—really smart. Imagine if your c... More Images:
  • #1, #2, and #4 all show overly clean, overly smooth water — almost like a backdrop rather than a real fluid surface.
  • #1 and #2 have glassy reflections that look more like CGI lighting than actual pond water.

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🐟 2. Facial Detail and Expression

• #3: The koi has small asymmetries around the eyes and mouth, and a slight tilt to its jaw. The fish’s barbels (whisker-like structures) are uneven in placement and texture — all signs of a real animal.
• AI Images:
  • #4 in particular shows a face that is too symmetrical, with overly perfect textures and too-clean edges.
  • #2 has a somewhat robotic look — the fish stares directly at the camera with a centered, almost human-like symmetry.

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💡 3. Lighting and Color Realism

• #3: The lighting is imperfect — brighter on one side, slightly shadowed elsewhere. The orange patterns on the fish’s body blend unevenly with the white — just like real koi with irregular markings.
• AI Images:
  • #1 and #2 have unnaturally even lighting with harsh reflections and no light falloff.
  • #4 has a uniform softbox-like look, with unrealistically smooth gradations across the scales.

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🧼 4. Skin and Scale Texture

#2 looks like it’s been polished — the red and white areas have no visible scale texture at all.

#3: The fish’s body shows slight irregularities, including softer focus in some areas and light diffusion through the water.

AI Images:

#1 and #4 have skin and scale patterns that are too crisp and evenly spaced.

Most Expensive Fish in the World

Japanese Koi are the most expensive fish in the world. One prized specimen (known as a Kōhaku) fetched $1.8 million dollars recently!

The fascinating video below will take you behind the scenes of a koi breeding facility in Japan. It’s a rare glimpse into what it takes to breed fish that can sell for over a million dollars.

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

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