# ClueAegis: Heuristic-to-Reasoning Cognitive-skill Learning for Unified Evidence-based Synthetic Image Detection

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.25009 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.25009/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 21 of its 49 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 May 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.00667/) (2022)
- [Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03206/) (2024)
- [CNN-generated images are surprisingly easy to spot... for now](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.11035/) (2019)
- [Visual ChatGPT: Talking, Drawing and Editing with Visual Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.04671/) (2023)
- [MM-REACT: Prompting ChatGPT for Multimodal Reasoning and Action](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11381/) (2023)
- [Towards Universal Fake Image Detectors that Generalize Across Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.10174/) (2023)
- [DeepEyes: Incentivizing "Thinking with Images" via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.14362/) (2025)
- [GenImage: A Million-Scale Benchmark for Detecting AI-Generated Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.08571/) (2023)
- [Detecting and Simulating Artifacts in GAN Fake Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.06515/) (2019)
- [What makes fake images detectable? Understanding properties that generalize](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.10588/) (2020)
- [Forgery-aware Adaptive Transformer for Generalizable Synthetic Image Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.16649/) (2023)
- [Capsule-Forensics: Using Capsule Networks to Detect Forged Images and Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.11215/) (2018)
- [SIDA: Social Media Image Deepfake Detection, Localization and Explanation with Large Multimodal Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04292/) (2024)
- [SKILL0: In-Context Agentic Reinforcement Learning for Skill Internalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.02268/) (2026)
- [Breaking Common Sense: WHOOPS! A Vision-and-Language Benchmark of Synthetic and Compositional Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.07274/) (2023)
- [Shadows Don't Lie and Lines Can't Bend! Generative Models don't know Projective Geometry...for now](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17138/) (2023)
- [DeepLSD: Line Segment Detection and Refinement with Deep Image Gradients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.07766/) (2022)
- [Instance Shadow Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.07034/) (2019)
- [Introducing Visual Perception Token into Multimodal Large Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.17425/) (2025)
- [TGIF: Text-Guided Inpainting Forgery Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.11566/) (2024)
- [HyperDet: Generalizable Detection of Synthesized Images by Generating and Merging A Mixture of Hyper LoRAs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.06044/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [TRACE: Trajectory Representation and Consistency Estimation for AI-Generated Video Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.25775/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The rapid advancement of generative models has made synthetic images increasingly realistic, challenging reliable detection. Existing methods are often limited to end-to-end classification or monolithic reasoning, and thus fail to model structured forensic reasoning and heterogeneous visual evidence. We revisit synthetic image detection from a cognitive perspective and propose a textitHeuristic-to-Reasoning cognitive skill learning framework for evidence-based forensic analysis. Given an input image, our framework first extracts heuristic perceptual clues, selects the optimal forensic skill, and then performs skill-conditioned reasoning for evidence extraction and decision making. To support this paradigm, we introduce ClueAegis-Bench, which decomposes synthetic image detection into explicitly annotated forensic cognitive skills for structured evaluation beyond binary classification. Based on this benchmark, we propose ClueAegis (underlineCognitive-skill underlineLearning for underlineUnified underlineEvidence-based Synthetic Image Detection), a two-stage agentic framework that conducts heuristic skill selection followed by evidence-guided reasoning through skill-conditioned toolchains. This design reformulates synthetic image detection as a configurable multi-skill reasoning process that bridges perception, skill selection, and forensic reasoning. Extensive experiments show that ClueAegis achieves state-of-the-art performance while improving cross-domain generalization and robustness. It also provides transparent reasoning trajectories and structured forensic evidence, offering a more explainable alternative to conventional end-to-end detectors.