Google Rolls Out ‘About This Image’ Tool For Fact Checking (Image: Google Blog)
Google introduced a new fact-checking tool, named “About this image”, on October 25. The new tool will help users check the credibility and context of images they come across online. The tool will be available to English-language users globally in Google Search.
The ‘About this image’ tool will provide an image”s history to the user. Also, an image”s metadata and information about how other sites use and describe the image can also be accessed through this tool. In an image”s history, users can see when an image or similar images may have first been seen by Google Search and whether that image was previously published much earlier on other webpages. “This can be helpful if an image is being taken out of context and shared in relation to a current event, but it’s actually much older,” Google mentioned in its blog while announcing the new feature.
Get more context behind what you’re searching and the images you’re finding with new features on Search, including About this image, which helps you learn more about a photo’s online history, its use on other sites and metadata ↓ https://t.co/6YVuRvbKwN
— Google (@Google) October 25, 2023
The new fact-checking tool will also help users find out whether an image has been generated or fabricated using generative AI. The tech giant said that all Google AI-generated images are distinctly marked. From now on, Google users can also see how an image is used on other pages and what other sources have to say about it. These other sources include news and fact-checking sites. With this, users can examine the claims being made about an image, and it will also provide evidence and perspectives from other sources.
To access the new fact-checking tool, users need to click on the three dots on an image in Google Images results. Users can also click on “more about this page” in the “About this result” tool on search results. “We’ll add more ways to access it in the coming months,” said Google in its blog. Google introduced the new tools amid rising concerns regarding fake news and misinformation.
