Research reflects how AI sees through the looking glass

Things are different on the other side of the mirror. Right hands become left hands. Intrigued by how reflection changes images in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, a team of Cornell researchers used artificial intelligence to investigate what sets originals apart from their reflections. Their algorithms learned to pick up on unexpected clues such as hair parts, gaze direction and, surprisingly, beards – findings with implications for training machine learning models and detecting faked images. AI learns to pick up on unexpected clues to differentiate original images from their reflections, the researchers found.