Prologue

Last week, the dymaptic team had its monthly social, and like a responsible adult with calendar conflicts, I missed it. That’s sad for me. We always do something fun, from terrariums to, well, the AI or Not game!

Ande (yes, the same one from Episode 38 that took us on our red teaming journey) built a game called “AI or not.” The game consists of a pile of images where your job is to identify which are real and which are a computer’s dream. The premise is simple, but the result was quite difficult. The team averaged about 20 out of 30 correct, with Amara winning the whole thing by a thread!

We also briefly played this game during my livestream this week and had a lot of fun!

Fauxologue

In case you have FOMO like me, here is a handful from the quiz. Make your guess on each one before you click to reveal the answer. If you are playing in the email, you’ll have to click through to the website to get the answers. Sorry, I just didn’t want to spoil it! (Also, this boosts my clicks, so click on!)

With apologies to Bill Watterson:

Tap to reveal — was it AI?

The bottom one is the AI. I’m almost disappointed because “maps change” is a pretty great life lesson that fits well with the Calvin and Hobbes concept!

The team reported that the nature shots were the hardest, so see how you do!

Will the real Yosemite Falls please stand up?

Tap to reveal — was it AI?

The right one is real. The fake leans a little too scenic, a little too composed. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this in real life, and it left me a little confused about what was real!

Smokey Mountain High

Tap to reveal — was it AI?

Left is real. Two sunsets over the same blue ridgelines, one happened, one didn't! (That feels like AI wrote it, but I swear it was me!)

Maps should be easy, right?

Tap to reveal — was it AI?

The right one is the real one! I live in Portland, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that map! The left one has the TriMet logo, which is a plus, but then says “Portland Metro” which just has the wrong vibe! But it sure does look official.

Real Rodeo Roundup

Tap to reveal — was it AI?

Right is real, and in what might be the best story from the social, check out the sign. Amara (who won the game) said she didn't think AI was clever enough to come up with a line as good as  "The Hottest Show on Dirt." Others read that line as obviously AI-written.

Christopher here: While writing this, I realized that “The Hottest Show on Dirt” could totally be AI writing, but it was then printed on a real sign and then ended up in this photo!

Palm Springs, California

Tap to reveal — was it AI?

Left is real. I’ve been to Palm Springs almost every year for the last 15 years, and I hesitated!

So, how’d you do? Were you six for six, or were you on the 60% bus with the rest of the dymaptic team?

So, how do you tell?

I asked Amara for tips on how to tell what’s real and what isn’t. She admitted to consuming a lot of “tips on the internet” on how to tell, but still thinks it is very hard, and getting harder by the day. Here are her top tips:

• Shadows — AI often gets light direction wrong; if the shadows in a shot don't agree with each other, be suspicious!
• Depth — On the landscape ones, watch the focus. A bokeh blur on the wrong thing (a foreground tree with no reason to be soft) gives it away.
• The vibe — Unsatisfying but real: Amara said sometimes the only move left is to "feel the vibe of the pic."

With great power…

These image generation tools are becoming genuinely useful, which means they are scary good at generating real-looking photographs and videos.

At dymaptic, we still rely on humans to build final versions of images, but in preparation for this year's Esri User Conference, we did extensive prototyping with AI image-generation tools. This helped us come up with concepts for our booth graphics and some new limited-edition stickers. We start with AI because it's fast and good enough to mock up many ideas until we settle on what we want. (It's like software gardening, for design!) Thankfully, we have talented design folks on our team like Agnes and Juliette who can take the AI-generated idea and make the real end product.

Want to see what I mean? Come see us at the UC next month!

Deepfakes are the real issue here: the ability to make you believe something is real when it isn’t. I really want to see more technologies to help prevent these! I’ve been thinking a lot about how to prove to folks that it really is me on my livestreams or in web meetings because I think this is a really important problem.

My best tips right now are to always turn your camera on, and to have a real physical background that you can interact with.

I think our best bet in the short term, though, is to make it socially unacceptable to try to pass off an AI-generated image as real.

Newsologue

(written by Jaws)

• The U.S. government switched off the most powerful AI model on the planet. On June 12 the Commerce Department forced Anthropic to disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 worldwide under export controls, three days after launch; the two sides are now negotiating a restart, with Anthropic saying "coming days". It appears that Fable’s ability to find software vulnerabilities is what got it benched. Of course, that’s also its superpower. (This is a developing story, and was last checked at 9:30am on Friday June 19th, 2026)
• The EU rolled out a code for labeling AI-generated content the same week I couldn't tell AI from real. It's voluntary guidance for marking AI images, audio, and deepfakes. Nice idea, but a label only works if the faker cooperates, and they won't.
• Regulators are finally coming for non-consensual deepfakes. The UK's ICO warned AI firms as the US’s DEFIANCE Act and laws in 47 states target the people making them. The same image generation tech we use to make software mockups or iterate on booth designs can also be misused to undress a stranger in seconds.

Epilogue

This week started as a bunch of notes from Holly, Ande, and Amara about the social, then a Word doc of the images and the answers from Ande. I fed all of that into Jaws, and it drafted this. It was pretty bad, I guess I’m already spoiled by Fable!

Then I rewrote it the way I wanted, had Jaws edit, and then had Holly edit.

P.S. The cover photo is AI, what was your guess?