How to filter AI images from Google search results
The artificial intelligence (AI) craze is in full swing, with every tech company trying to shove AI features into its products. Unfortunately so far, for anyone not tied to Silicon Valley or Wall Street, the AI boom has had questionable results. Among AI’s problems include the increasing amount of AI-generated images appearing in online searches. For those searching online for images (such as, say, bloggers), it makes using Google to find or verify non-AI images harder. Fortunately, there’s still a few ways to try to filter out AI images in Google.
Filter results in Google Search
One option is only searching for images created before a certain date. Since ChatGPT opened to the public in November 2022, one can add “before: 2022” to all image search queries. For example: “Superman before:2022” would turn up images of the Man of Steel published online before 2022.
Another option is adding “-ai -prompt” after any search term. For example: “Superman -ai -prompt.”
Using both (“Superman -ai -prompt before:2022”) is also an option, of course.
Using uBlock Origin
Another option is using the ad blocker browser extension uBlock Origin to filter out AI results from searches.
After making sure uBlock Origin’s installed, you can go to this GitHub page, which is a regularly updated blocklist of AI-related sites. Follow the page’s instructions for subscribing to the blocklist with your uBlock Origin extension, and that’s it. Most AI-related results should be removed from Google image searches.
Using uBlacklist
Another browser extension option is uBlacklist, which works similarly to uBlock Origin above in filtering AI results. One difference is it displays on the search results page the number of sites filtered. Setup for uBlacklist is similar to uBlock Origin above.
I prefer using uBlock Origin, since I can just use one plugin for both AI filtering and ad blocking.
Using free image sites
As for sites like Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash, Flickr, etc. that offer free/Creative Commons images, the filtering options are often limited. (In Pexels’ case, it’s owned by Canva, a company that’s definitely into AI.) While Pixabay offers a filter to remove any AI-tagged images from search results, it’s not perfect.
Otherwise, the best options are either searching the site via Google (using the tips above) or searching the site normally, but checking the dates on any images you want to use. For the latter, the image will ideally have been published before November 2022.
Conclusion
While the above options aren't perfect, they can make searching for images online more tolerable. That said, given Google and Microsoft are all-in on pushing AI, the future of online search quality is questionable.