SLOP AUTOPSY //

GLOSSARY // 64 TELLS

The named artifacts of AI-generated imagery. Each tell is a pattern that, by itself, is suggestive — and that, in combination, is forensic. This list is curated and evolves over time.

Hands & Limbs

  • Floating thumb
    Thumb detached from the rest of the hand or floating mid-air.
  • Fused fingers
    Two or more digits merging into one mass or sharing bone.
  • Hand topology errors
    Bones, joints, or knuckles arranged in impossible ways.
  • Impossible finger curl
    Digit bending against its natural anatomical direction.
  • Missing digits
    A finger or thumb absent where one should be present.
  • Phantom limbs
    Extra arm, leg, or hand appearing partially in the frame.
  • Polydactyly
    Extra digit appearing without correct anatomy or count.
  • Shared metacarpals
    Two fingers exiting one knuckle or sharing a single bone.
  • Wrong joint count
    Finger or limb with too few or too many bending points.

Faces & Features

  • Asymmetric eyes
    Eyes at different heights, sizes, or angles on the face.
  • Dead eyes
    Glassy, doll-like eyes with no realistic catchlight or depth.
  • Extra teeth
    Mouth containing too many teeth or duplicated rows.
  • Eyebrow asymmetry
    Brows at noticeably different heights, shapes, or thicknesses.
  • Floating earrings
    Jewelry hovering without visible attachment to the ear.
  • Glasses-frame fusion
    Frame merging with face, hair, or breaking continuity mid-frame.
  • Hair-skin fusion
    Hair strands blending into forehead, ear, or background skin.
  • Inconsistent age cues
    Skin, eyes, and hair suggesting different ages on the same person.
  • Melted features
    Nose, mouth, or ear deforming or running into nearby skin.
  • Mismatched earrings
    Earrings of different styles, shapes, or sizes on each ear.
  • Mismatched pupils
    Pupils of different sizes, shapes, or directions of gaze.
  • Over-smoothed features
    Soft, blurred facial detail with no skin texture or imperfection.
  • Plastic skin
    Unnaturally smooth, wax-like skin with no real pore detail.

Text & Typography

  • Fake brand mark
    Recognizable logo subtly wrong in font, color, or proportion.
  • Garbled text
    Letters distorted into shapes that resemble but do not form words.
  • Glyph soup
    Symbols that look like a real script but spell nothing.
  • Inconsistent text size
    Letters within the same word at noticeably different sizes.
  • Letter fusion
    Adjacent letters merging into single hybrid glyphs.
  • Phantom letters
    Extra characters inserted into otherwise readable words.
  • Symbol drift
    Logo or brand mark missing a key element or distorted from real form.
  • Text decay
    Letters degrading or melting into background near the edges.
  • Wrong-language characters
    Latin and non-Latin scripts mixed inside a single word.

Physics & Lighting

  • AI bokeh
    Unnaturally smooth or selectively soft depth of field with no real lens cause.
  • Gravity defiance
    Objects or limbs floating, leaning, or suspended without support.
  • Impossible geometry
    Architectural elements that cannot exist in three-dimensional space.
  • Light source error
    Lighting on subjects contradicting the visible light direction.
  • Missing shadow
    Object that should cast a shadow on a clearly lit surface but does not.
  • Object clipping
    Solid objects passing through each other where they should collide.
  • Reflection error
    Mirror, window, or water reflection not matching what is in front of it.
  • Scale error
    Objects or people sized incorrectly relative to their surroundings.
  • Shadow mismatch
    Shadows pointing in different directions from the same light source.
  • Vanishing-point drift
    Perspective lines converging in inconsistent or impossible directions.

Objects & Accessories

  • Belt-loop error
    Belt threading through missing loops or skipping loops irregularly.
  • Duplicated object
    Same object repeated nearby with slight variation, like a copy-paste.
  • Jewelry fusion
    Ring, necklace, or piercing merging with surrounding skin or fabric.
  • Misplaced buttons
    Buttons missing, doubled, or arranged in impossible patterns on clothing.
  • Pattern drift
    Fabric, tile, or wallpaper pattern shifting mid-surface without reason.
  • Phantom object
    Object appearing where nothing should logically be — half a chair, a stray hand.
  • Textile incoherence
    Cloth folds and shadows not matching the underlying body or surface.
  • Watch on wrong wrist
    Wristwatch or band appearing on a mirrored or anatomically wrong side.

Background & Architecture

  • Background mush
    Distant areas dissolving into abstract shapes with no recognizable form.
  • Crowd duplication
    Same face, body, or outfit appearing multiple times in a crowd.
  • Impossible architecture
    Buildings with stairs to nowhere, doors to walls, or M.C. Escher logic.
  • Pattern tiling errors
    Repeating textures with visible seams, breaks, or sudden shifts.
  • Repeating background faces
    Identical or near-identical faces scattered through background extras.
  • Sign-text gibberish
    Signs, posters, or storefronts in the background with nonsense text.
  • Window asymmetry
    Windows on a facade at different sizes, shapes, or alignments.

Stylistic & Metadata

  • C2PA metadata missing
    No content credentials embedded where a real camera or tool would leave them.
  • Color over-saturation
    Colors more vivid than physically possible for the lighting shown.
  • EXIF stripped
    No camera, lens, or capture metadata where it should exist.
  • Generator signature
    Style hallmarks specific to a known generator (palette, composition, lens feel).
  • Hyperreal sharpness
    Subject sharper than any real camera could produce, with no motion blur.
  • Missing imperfection
    No dust, scuffs, asymmetry, or real-world wear anywhere in frame.
  • Plastic aesthetic
    Overall waxy, rendered look common to specific AI model outputs.
  • Uniform lighting
    Even, sourceless light across the whole image with no real falloff.