DNA: Uncovering Universal Latent Forgery Knowledge

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Dou, Jingtong, Shi, Chuancheng, Wang, Yemin, Guo, Shiming, Yi, Anqi, Wu, Wenhua, Zhang, Li, Shen, Fei, Chua, Tat-Seng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Dou, Jingtong
Shi, Chuancheng
Wang, Yemin
Guo, Shiming
Yi, Anqi
Wu, Wenhua
Zhang, Li
Shen, Fei
Chua, Tat-Seng
author_facet Dou, Jingtong
Shi, Chuancheng
Wang, Yemin
Guo, Shiming
Yi, Anqi
Wu, Wenhua
Zhang, Li
Shen, Fei
Chua, Tat-Seng
contents As generative AI achieves hyper-realism, superficial artifact detection has become obsolete. While prevailing methods rely on resource-intensive fine-tuning of black-box backbones, we propose that forgery detection capability is already encoded within pre-trained models rather than requiring end-to-end retraining. To elicit this intrinsic capability, we propose the discriminative neural anchors (DNA) framework, which employs a coarse-to-fine excavation mechanism. First, by analyzing feature decoupling and attention distribution shifts, we pinpoint critical intermediate layers where the focus of the model logically transitions from global semantics to local anomalies. Subsequently, we introduce a triadic fusion scoring metric paired with a curvature-truncation strategy to strip away semantic redundancy, precisely isolating the forgery-discriminative units (FDUs) inherently imprinted with sensitivity to forgery traces. Moreover, we introduce HIFI-Gen, a high-fidelity synthetic benchmark built upon the very latest models, to address the lag in existing datasets. Experiments demonstrate that by solely relying on these anchors, DNA achieves superior detection performance even under few-shot conditions. Furthermore, it exhibits remarkable robustness across diverse architectures and against unseen generative models, validating that waking up latent neurons is more effective than extensive fine-tuning.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_22515
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle DNA: Uncovering Universal Latent Forgery Knowledge
Dou, Jingtong
Shi, Chuancheng
Wang, Yemin
Guo, Shiming
Yi, Anqi
Wu, Wenhua
Zhang, Li
Shen, Fei
Chua, Tat-Seng
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
As generative AI achieves hyper-realism, superficial artifact detection has become obsolete. While prevailing methods rely on resource-intensive fine-tuning of black-box backbones, we propose that forgery detection capability is already encoded within pre-trained models rather than requiring end-to-end retraining. To elicit this intrinsic capability, we propose the discriminative neural anchors (DNA) framework, which employs a coarse-to-fine excavation mechanism. First, by analyzing feature decoupling and attention distribution shifts, we pinpoint critical intermediate layers where the focus of the model logically transitions from global semantics to local anomalies. Subsequently, we introduce a triadic fusion scoring metric paired with a curvature-truncation strategy to strip away semantic redundancy, precisely isolating the forgery-discriminative units (FDUs) inherently imprinted with sensitivity to forgery traces. Moreover, we introduce HIFI-Gen, a high-fidelity synthetic benchmark built upon the very latest models, to address the lag in existing datasets. Experiments demonstrate that by solely relying on these anchors, DNA achieves superior detection performance even under few-shot conditions. Furthermore, it exhibits remarkable robustness across diverse architectures and against unseen generative models, validating that waking up latent neurons is more effective than extensive fine-tuning.
title DNA: Uncovering Universal Latent Forgery Knowledge
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.22515