Armadillo Conference 2026

Dates: October 23^rd-24^th, 2026

Venue: TAMU-SA campus, Central Academic Building, Vista Room (CAB 402) Fourth Floor

Hotel: Embassy Suites by Hilton San Antonio Brooks Hotel & Spa 7610 S New Braunfels Ave, San Antonio, TX 78235

Abstract Deadline: September 7^th

Early Bird Registration and Hotel Discount Deadline: September 15^th

Jim Tanaka
University of Victoria

Talk Title: On the Other Side of the Uncanny Valley: Hyperrealism and the Detection of AI Faces

Abstract: The new generation of AI faces is so realistic and lifelike that people are easily fooled into believing they are real. Although previous attempts to train people to detect AI faces have met with only modest success, work by Dawel et al. (2026) showed that detection can be dramatically improved through an implicit training protocol that exploits the hyperrealistic qualities of AI faces. In my talk, I will explore the perceptual and psychological dimensions of this implicit training, suggesting that the very qualities that make AI faces appear hyperrealistic may also provide the clues for detecting them. I will also discuss recent research examining whether the detection of AI faces depends on the same holistic processes that support human face recognition. More broadly, I will consider whether the perception of real and artificial faces relies on shared cognitive mechanisms or engages fundamentally different perceptual processes.