# Robust CLIP-Based Detector for Exposing Diffusion Model-Generated Images

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.12908 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.12908/

## Key facts

- Cited by 20 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Image generation, text-to-image and editing, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 50 of its 61 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 19 Apr 2024.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Image generation, text-to-image and editing](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/image-generation-text-to-image-and-editing/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 50)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Densely Connected Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.06993/) (2016)
- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [Rethinking the Inception Architecture for Computer Vision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.00567/) (2015)
- [Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09672/) (2021)
- [Xception: Deep Learning with Depthwise Separable Convolutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02357/) (2016)
- [LAION-400M: Open Dataset of CLIP-Filtered 400 Million Image-Text Pairs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.02114/) (2021)
- [Sharpness-Aware Minimization for Efficiently Improving Generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.01412/) (2020)
- [FaceForensics++: Learning to Detect Manipulated Facial Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.08971/) (2019)
- [DE-FAKE: Detection and Attribution of Fake Images Generated by Text-to-Image Generation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.06998/) (2022)
- [Raising the Bar of AI-generated Image Detection with CLIP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00195/) (2023)
- [Conditional Diffusion Models for Semantic 3D Brain MRI Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18453/) (2023)
- [Detecting Multimedia Generated by Large AI Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.00045/) (2024)
- [Preserving Fairness Generalization in Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17229/) (2024)
- [CoMat: Aligning Text-to-Image Diffusion Model with Image-to-Text Concept Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.03653/) (2024)
- [Exposing GAN-generated Faces Using Inconsistent Corneal Specular Highlights](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.11924/) (2020)
- [Eyes Tell All: Irregular Pupil Shapes Reveal GAN-generated Faces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.00162/) (2021)
- [Exposing the Fake: Effective Diffusion-Generated Images Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.06272/) (2023)
- [LCM-Lookahead for Encoder-based Text-to-Image Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.03620/) (2024)
- [CLIPping the Deception: Adapting Vision-Language Models for Universal Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.12927/) (2024)
- [LaRE2: Latent Reconstruction Error Based Method for Diffusion-Generated Image Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17465/) (2024)
- [DeepFake Detection: Current Challenges and Next Steps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.09234/) (2020)
- [Improving Fairness in Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.16635/) (2023)
- [Lighting (In)consistency of Paint by Text](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.13744/) (2022)
- [MVD-Fusion: Single-view 3D via Depth-consistent Multi-view Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.03656/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Bridging the Gap Between Ideal and Real-world Evaluation: Benchmarking AI-Generated Image Detection in Challenging Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.09172/) (2025)
- [FSFM: A Generalizable Face Security Foundation Model via Self-Supervised Facial Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.12032/) (2024)
- [UU-Mamba: Uncertainty-aware U-Mamba for Cardiac Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17496/) (2024)
- [OpenFake: An Open Dataset and Platform Toward Real-World Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.09495/) (2025)
- [Explainable Synthetic Image Detection through Diffusion Timestep Ensembling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06201/) (2025)
- [Improving Generalization of Medical Image Registration Foundation Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.06527/) (2025)
- [Robust AI-Generated Face Detection with Imbalanced Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02182/) (2025)
- [The Cat and Mouse Game: The Ongoing Arms Race Between Diffusion Models and Detection Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.18866/) (2024)
- [Robust Fairness Vision-Language Learning for Medical Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.03153/) (2025)
- [Rethinking Individual Fairness in Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.14326/) (2025)
- [Present and Future Generalization of Synthetic Image Detectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14128/) (2024)
- [An Uncertainty-Aware Generalization Framework for Cardiovascular Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14305/) (2024)
- [SafetyPairs: Isolating Safety Critical Image Features with Counterfactual Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.21120/) (2025)
- [A Data-Centric Approach to Pedestrian Attribute Recognition: Synthetic Augmentation via Prompt-driven Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.02099/) (2025)
- [Unified Face Matching and Physical-Digital Spoofing Attack Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.09635/) (2025)
- [Unmasking Synthetic Realities in Generative AI: A Comprehensive Review of Adversarially Robust Deepfake Detection Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21157/) (2025)
- [SynthGuard: An Open Platform for Detecting AI-Generated Multimedia with Multimodal LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.12404/) (2025)
- [Robust Multi-Source Covid-19 Detection in CT Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.03320/) (2026)
- [Robust Fair Disease Diagnosis in CT Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.09710/) (2026)
- [Chroma Clues: Leveraging Color Statistics to Detect Synthetic Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.02224/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Diffusion models (DMs) have revolutionized image generation, producing high-quality images with applications spanning various fields. However, their ability to create hyper-realistic images poses significant challenges in distinguishing between real and synthetic content, raising concerns about digital authenticity and potential misuse in creating deepfakes. This work introduces a robust detection framework that integrates image and text features extracted by CLIP model with a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) classifier. We propose a novel loss that can improve the detector's robustness and handle imbalanced datasets. Additionally, we flatten the loss landscape during the model training to improve the detector's generalization capabilities. The effectiveness of our method, which outperforms traditional detection techniques, is demonstrated through extensive experiments, underscoring its potential to set a new state-of-the-art approach in DM-generated image detection. The code is available at https://github.com/Purdue-M2/Robust_DM_Generated_Image_Detection.