In May, Google announced the "about this" feature will be coming to Google Images with "about this image." It is now live and it shows history of the image, how the site uses and describes the image and meta data of the image (if available) including if AI-enhanced or made the image.
The funny thing is Glenn Gabe spotted this several hours before it was live and shared some examples on X. Notice the note that says "it looks like this may be a Recent image."
Then when you click for more details, it says "it looks like this image may have recently appeared online."
Glenn wrote, "Interesting to see this addition last night when checking "About this result" in Google. I saw a section titled "About the image" explaining it was a recent image. Tapping that led to another screen w/more info about the image. I can't reproduce now. Must be a test..."
Google will also show an image or similar images may have first been seen by Google Search, and whether it was previously published much earlier on other webpages.
It will also show how other sites use and describe the image. Google will show if an image is used on other pages, and what other sources, and if news and fact checking sites, have to say about it.
Finally, it may show an image's metadata, if provided by the site. It can show fields that may indicate that it has been generated or enhanced by AI. All Google AI-generated images will have this markup in the original file, Google said.
Here is Google's GIF:
Forum discussion at X.