# UGAD: Universal Generative AI Detector utilizing Frequency Fingerprints

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.07913 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.07913/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 32 of its 68 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 12 Sep 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 32)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Analyzing and Improving the Image Quality of StyleGAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04958/) (2019)
- [Taming Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09841/) (2020)
- [Progressive Growing of GANs for Improved Quality, Stability, and Variation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10196/) (2017)
- [Large Scale GAN Training for High Fidelity Natural Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.11096/) (2018)
- [FaceForensics++: Learning to Detect Manipulated Facial Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.08971/) (2019)
- [CNN-generated images are surprisingly easy to spot... for now](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.11035/) (2019)
- [Celeb-DF: A Large-scale Challenging Dataset for DeepFake Forensics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.12962/) (2019)
- [Detecting and Simulating Artifacts in GAN Fake Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.06515/) (2019)
- [On the detection of synthetic images generated by diffusion models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.00680/) (2022)
- [What makes fake images detectable? Understanding properties that generalize](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.10588/) (2020)
- [FakeAVCeleb: A Novel Audio-Video Multimodal Deepfake Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.05080/) (2021)
- [Intriguing properties of synthetic images: from generative adversarial networks to diffusion models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.06408/) (2023)
- [FrePGAN: Robust Deepfake Detection Using Frequency-level Perturbations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.03347/) (2022)
- [ADD: Frequency Attention and Multi-View based Knowledge Distillation to Detect Low-Quality Compressed Deepfake Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.03553/) (2021)
- [Exposing the Fake: Effective Diffusion-Generated Images Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.06272/) (2023)
- [FReTAL: Generalizing Deepfake Detection using Knowledge Distillation and Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.13617/) (2021)
- [CoReD: Generalizing Fake Media Detection with Continual Representation using Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.02408/) (2021)
- [One Detector to Rule Them All: Towards a General Deepfake Attack Detection Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.00187/) (2021)
- [All but One: Surgical Concept Erasing with Model Preservation in Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.12807/) (2023)
- [Quality-Agnostic Deepfake Detection with Intra-model Collaborative Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.05911/) (2023)
- [Towards Universal GAN Image Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.12606/) (2021)
- [Discovering Transferable Forensic Features for CNN-generated Images Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.11342/) (2022)
- [FDFtNet: Facing Off Fake Images using Fake Detection Fine-tuning Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.01265/) (2020)
- [TAR: Generalized Forensic Framework to Detect Deepfakes using Weakly Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.06117/) (2021)
- [Why Do Facial Deepfake Detectors Fail?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.13156/) (2023)
- [Forensic Analysis of Synthetically Generated Western Blot Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.08739/) (2021)
- [Exploring the Asynchronous of the Frequency Spectra of GAN-generated Facial Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.08050/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [LLMs Are Not Yet Ready for Deepfake Image Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.10474/) (2025)
- [FakeChain: Exposing Shallow Cues in Multi-Step Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.16602/) (2025)
- [Team NYCU at Defactify4: Robust Detection and Source Identification of AI-Generated Images Using CNN and CLIP-Based Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10718/) (2025)
- [Seeing Through the Blur: Unlocking Defocus Maps for Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.23289/) (2025)
- [Through the Lens: Benchmarking Deepfake Detectors Against Moir'e-Induced Distortions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.23225/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In the wake of a fabricated explosion image at the Pentagon, an ability to discern real images from fake counterparts has never been more critical. Our study introduces a novel multi-modal approach to detect AI-generated images amidst the proliferation of new generation methods such as Diffusion models. Our method, UGAD, encompasses three key detection steps: First, we transform the RGB images into YCbCr channels and apply an Integral Radial Operation to emphasize salient radial features. Secondly, the Spatial Fourier Extraction operation is used for a spatial shift, utilizing a pre-trained deep learning network for optimal feature extraction. Finally, the deep neural network classification stage processes the data through dense layers using softmax for classification. Our approach significantly enhances the accuracy of differentiating between real and AI-generated images, as evidenced by a 12.64% increase in accuracy and 28.43% increase in AUC compared to existing state-of-the-art methods.