Is that Reel, Short or TikTok AI? How to check

Short vertical videos are where AI content spreads fastest: they're quick to watch, easy to remix and pushed by algorithms to people who don't follow the creator. Here's how to check one in a couple of minutes.

1. Look for the platform's own label

All three big platforms now label some AI content:

• Instagram and Facebook show an "AI info" label on content their systems detect or creators disclose as made or edited with AI.
• YouTube asks creators to disclose realistic altered or synthetic content and shows an "Altered or synthetic content" note, usually in the description, and sometimes on the player itself for sensitive topics.
• TikTok shows an "AI-generated" label on disclosed content and automatically labels uploads that carry Content Credentials from AI tools.

A label is a strong hint. But no label proves nothing: labels depend on creators being honest or on hidden metadata surviving the upload, and both often fail.

2. Read the description and the comments

Creators sometimes mention the tool in the caption or hashtags (#aiart, #sora, #veo3, #aivideo). Comments are often where viewers point out an AI tell or link to the original.

3. Look at the account, not just the video

• How old is it, and how often does it post? Accounts that post several hyper-realistic "incredible moment" clips a day are often AI content farms.
• Is the "creator" ever seen in other videos? A real person filming real events has a history: different places, different lighting, behind-the-scenes clips.
• Do the videos all have the same feel? Similar camera moves, similar length and a similar polished look across unrelated "events" is a common pattern.

4. Watch for AI tells

Short clips are hard to judge, but watch the hands, any text, background faces and moments where one thing touches another. Our list of 12 signs covers what to look for, and what AI video still gets wrong explains why.

5. Paste the link into a scanner

Copy the link from the share menu and paste it into Video Verifier. It works with Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, X, Reddit and more than 1,000 other sites. In under a minute you get an answer like "92% AI" or "88% Real", plus the reasons and the moments behind it.

If the link won't load: private accounts, close-friends stories and age-restricted posts can't be fetched by anyone without logging in. Save or screen-record the video and upload the file instead. A screen recording loses some detail, so use the original download if the app allows it.

6. Decide what to do

• Clearly labelled AI and harmless (art, comedy, fantasy): enjoy it.
• Unlabelled AI presented as real news or a real person: don't share it, and consider reporting it to the platform as misleading.
• Unsure: if you share it, say you couldn't verify it.

For anything you're going to report on, invest in or act on, a Deep Scan checks every second of picture and speech instead of a sample. Here's when to use Quick or Deep.