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Main Authors: Xiao, Yao, Chen, Weiyan, Chen, Jiahao, Cao, Zijie, Deng, Weijian, Yang, Binbin, Dong, Ziyi, Ji, Xiangyang, Ke, Wei, Wei, Pengxu, Lin, Liang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.19430
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author Xiao, Yao
Chen, Weiyan
Chen, Jiahao
Cao, Zijie
Deng, Weijian
Yang, Binbin
Dong, Ziyi
Ji, Xiangyang
Ke, Wei
Wei, Pengxu
Lin, Liang
author_facet Xiao, Yao
Chen, Weiyan
Chen, Jiahao
Cao, Zijie
Deng, Weijian
Yang, Binbin
Dong, Ziyi
Ji, Xiangyang
Ke, Wei
Wei, Pengxu
Lin, Liang
contents Current AI-Generated Image (AIGI) detection approaches predominantly rely on binary classification to distinguish real from synthetic images, often lacking interpretable or convincing evidence to substantiate their decisions. This limitation stems from existing AIGI detection benchmarks, which, despite featuring a broad collection of synthetic images, remain restricted in their coverage of artifact diversity and lack detailed, localized annotations. To bridge this gap, we introduce a fine-grained benchmark towards eXplainable AI-Generated image Detection, named X-AIGD, which provides pixel-level, categorized annotations of perceptual artifacts, spanning low-level distortions, high-level semantics, and cognitive-level counterfactuals. These comprehensive annotations facilitate fine-grained interpretability evaluation and deeper insight into model decision-making processes. Our extensive investigation using X-AIGD provides several key insights: (1) Existing AIGI detectors demonstrate negligible reliance on perceptual artifacts, even at the most basic distortion level. (2) While AIGI detectors can be trained to identify specific artifacts, they still substantially base their judgment on uninterpretable features. (3) Explicitly aligning model attention with artifact regions can increase the interpretability and generalization of detectors. The data and code are available at: https://github.com/Coxy7/X-AIGD.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_19430
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Unveiling Perceptual Artifacts: A Fine-Grained Benchmark for Interpretable AI-Generated Image Detection
Xiao, Yao
Chen, Weiyan
Chen, Jiahao
Cao, Zijie
Deng, Weijian
Yang, Binbin
Dong, Ziyi
Ji, Xiangyang
Ke, Wei
Wei, Pengxu
Lin, Liang
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Current AI-Generated Image (AIGI) detection approaches predominantly rely on binary classification to distinguish real from synthetic images, often lacking interpretable or convincing evidence to substantiate their decisions. This limitation stems from existing AIGI detection benchmarks, which, despite featuring a broad collection of synthetic images, remain restricted in their coverage of artifact diversity and lack detailed, localized annotations. To bridge this gap, we introduce a fine-grained benchmark towards eXplainable AI-Generated image Detection, named X-AIGD, which provides pixel-level, categorized annotations of perceptual artifacts, spanning low-level distortions, high-level semantics, and cognitive-level counterfactuals. These comprehensive annotations facilitate fine-grained interpretability evaluation and deeper insight into model decision-making processes. Our extensive investigation using X-AIGD provides several key insights: (1) Existing AIGI detectors demonstrate negligible reliance on perceptual artifacts, even at the most basic distortion level. (2) While AIGI detectors can be trained to identify specific artifacts, they still substantially base their judgment on uninterpretable features. (3) Explicitly aligning model attention with artifact regions can increase the interpretability and generalization of detectors. The data and code are available at: https://github.com/Coxy7/X-AIGD.
title Unveiling Perceptual Artifacts: A Fine-Grained Benchmark for Interpretable AI-Generated Image Detection
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.19430