GRRE: Leveraging G-Channel Removed Reconstruction Error for Robust Detection of AI-Generated Images
Shuman He 1,2, Xiehua Li 1, Xioaju Yang 1, Yang Xiong 1, Keqin Li 1,2
Published on arXiv
2601.02709
Output Integrity Attack
OWASP ML Top 10 — ML09
Key Finding
GRRE achieves superior cross-model generalization on AI-generated image detection including images from generative models unseen during training, while remaining robust to common image perturbations and post-processing.
GRRE (G-Channel Removed Reconstruction Error)
Novel technique introduced
The rapid progress of generative models, particularly diffusion models and GANs, has greatly increased the difficulty of distinguishing synthetic images from real ones. Although numerous detection methods have been proposed, their accuracy often degrades when applied to images generated by novel or unseen generative models, highlighting the challenge of achieving strong generalization. To address this challenge, we introduce a novel detection paradigm based on channel removal reconstruction. Specifically, we observe that when the green (G) channel is removed from real images and reconstructed, the resulting reconstruction errors differ significantly from those of AI-generated images. Building upon this insight, we propose G-channel Removed Reconstruction Error (GRRE), a simple yet effective method that exploits this discrepancy for robust AI-generated image detection. Extensive experiments demonstrate that GRRE consistently achieves high detection accuracy across multiple generative models, including those unseen during training. Compared with existing approaches, GRRE not only maintains strong robustness against various perturbations and post-processing operations but also exhibits superior cross-model generalization. These results highlight the potential of channel-removal-based reconstruction as a powerful forensic tool for safeguarding image authenticity in the era of generative AI.
Key Contributions
- Novel detection paradigm based on G-channel removal and reconstruction error discrepancy between real and AI-generated images
- GRRE method that generalizes to unseen generative models without requiring model-specific training
- Demonstrated robustness against perturbations and post-processing operations that degrade competing detectors
🛡️ Threat Analysis
Proposes a forensic detection scheme (GRRE) for verifying image authenticity by distinguishing real from AI-generated images (diffusion models, GANs) — directly falls under AI-generated content detection as listed under Output Integrity.