How do people watch AI-generated videos of physical scenes?
For researchers and developers in AI detection and video generation, this work provides a human-centered perspective on how people watch AI-generated videos, revealing that perceived authenticity and awareness influence gaze behavior.
This study collected eye movements from 40 participants watching real and AI-generated videos, finding that gaze behavior is driven more by perceived authenticity than actual authenticity, and awareness of potential AI generation shifts viewing from passive to active anomaly search.
The growing prevalence of realistic AI-generated videos on media platforms increasingly blurs the line between fact and fiction, eroding public trust. Understanding how people watch AI-generated videos offers a human-centered perspective for improving AI detection and guiding advancements in video generation. However, existing studies have not investigated human gaze behavior in response to AI-generated videos of physical scenes. Here, we collect and analyze the eye movements from 40 participants during video understanding and AI detection tasks involving a mix of real-world and AI-generated videos. We find that given the high realism of AI-generated videos, gaze behavior is driven less by the video's actual authenticity and more by the viewer's perception of its authenticity. Our results demonstrate that the mere awareness of potential AI generation may alter media consumption from passive viewing into an active search for anomalies.