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Elsewhere, a game was played. This game was an unusual sort of game, and the results are an unusual sort of curiosity, though I should say no more outside of spoiler tags. I thought it would make for an interesting puzzle, so am cross-posting it here with some details hidden.

Here are some pictures. Find the odd one out.

Three jars Three jars Three jars Three jars Three jars Three jars

You should be able to solve this problem with visual inspection alone, without the use of analysis tools or internet searches.

Hint:

The answer to this is going to surprise most people in the world. You should still be able to look at the images, see something suspicious about them, and deduce that something is going on. There is more than one suspicious property you should be looking for.

These images are in a random order and do not encode anything. One of them is just qualitatively different to the others.

The scene depicted is largely arbitrary. The suspicious properties in the images were not intentional.

Attribution spoilers (this is not a hint):

Most of these images are generated by DALL-E 2. DALL-E 2 adds a signature to the bottom right corner of each image, which I censored in order to prevent the game being given away.

Prompts, generations, and the odd one out come from this thread.

Here is a post with all of the prompts and their results.

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  • $\begingroup$ I did not look at the spoilers, but simply noticed that rot13(bayl bar wne vf uryq ol gur yvq). Does that have anything to do with it? $\endgroup$
    – Rumpelstiltskin
    Apr 24, 2022 at 19:38
  • $\begingroup$ @Rumpelstiltskin No. You are missing the big picture. (That isn't a play on words, but do note that you can click images to see them in higher resolution.) $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 24, 2022 at 19:45
  • $\begingroup$ In retrospect, probably this only seemed like “a light puzzle” to me because I am extremely familiar with the topic. Observably, this is actually quite difficult. $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 24, 2022 at 21:17
  • $\begingroup$ This question is being discussed on meta. $\endgroup$
    – risky mysteries
    May 8, 2022 at 0:36

9 Answers 9

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Let's take it row by row:

Row 1:

Picture 1: The base of the jar is distorted and the position is untenable for a long exposure shot
Picture 2: weird distortion around the fingers
Picture 3: Distortion at the top and a weird hand position

Row 2:

Picture 1: The lid is wrong
Picture 2: The side of the jar are distorted
Picture 3: Again, not a position you could hold for such a shot and the hand looks like a glove

Row 3:

Picture 1: Untenable position, distortion on the right and artefacts on the fingers
Picture 2: I see nothing wrong with this, also the shot composition seems intentional and is really striking.
Picture 3: weird pinky and distortion around the thumb

Row 4:

Picture 1: There's an extra finger
Picture 2: Wrong lighting and wrong fingers
Picture 3: Untenable position and distortion around the thumb and top of the jar

Row 5:

Picture 1: Untenable position, one finger seems to be behind the jar
Picture 2: a little bit of distortion around the top of the jar and that one star sticking out of the knuckle lead me to take a closer look at the fingers, which are too bumpy to be real.
Picture 3: That looks nothing like a hand. Is this a jar on a chair?

Row 6:

Picture 1: The thumb is too long and the top of the jar fades out.
Picture 2: That just looks like bad CGI
Picture 3: Again an untenable position and also an additional finger.

That leads me to believe that:

Row 3 Column 2 is the only real image.

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    $\begingroup$ Congrats, you have a good eye for this. $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 25, 2022 at 12:39
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks! Some of them were quite hard. AI is getting scarily good. rot13(Gur senzvat va fvk/bar ybbxf nyzbfg nf vagragvbany nf gur erny bar.) This is a really neat puzzle idea, do you have an idea where I can find more of these types of puzzle? $\endgroup$
    – xyldke
    Apr 25, 2022 at 13:24
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    $\begingroup$ @xyldke whichfaceisreal.com $\endgroup$
    – kopaka
    Apr 25, 2022 at 13:32
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    $\begingroup$ Unfortunately not many people have access to the system currently. I did make a newer version of @kopaka's link, normal mode and hard mode, though both are out of date now. $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 25, 2022 at 13:35
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for the recommendations. I've spent some time on this-person-does-not-exist.com so I mostly look at the background which gives me an okay-ish accuracy. I like that @Veedrac 's version does not tell you, how many real faces there are. $\endgroup$
    – xyldke
    Apr 25, 2022 at 13:42
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Is it

row 6 col 3 because of the inconsistent lighting.

Reasoning

@Veedrac implied that @Will had the correct answer but incomplete reasoning, so I looked around the image to see what else could be different to the rest. There appears to be inconsistent lighting, because the side of the jar's lid is illuminated while the hand is backlit. It's like there's two different light sources, one acting on the lid and one acting on the hand.

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    $\begingroup$ I did not mean to imply that @will had the right answer, just that he noticed something relevant. In fact it is not the only image with that feature (row 4 col 1?). The answer to this is much less arbitrary than your suggestion. $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 25, 2022 at 10:38
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My guess is:

Row 6 picture 3, which will pointed out.

I suspect that:

It is in fact not a "real" picture, but created by an AI like DALL-E.

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  • $\begingroup$ Your guess is wrong but you got the justification right! Actually, rot13(bayl bar bs gur vzntrf vf erny. Frr vs lbh pna aneebj qbja gur bcgvbaf.) I see you're a new contributor, were you linked here from somewhere? $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 25, 2022 at 12:13
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    $\begingroup$ I just saw this one in the "hot network questions". I haven't contributed before, but I read the puzzling SE now and then when it pops up. $\endgroup$
    – Dronir
    Apr 25, 2022 at 12:17
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It's the

Bottom right. Too many fingers.

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  • $\begingroup$ Really? I thought that was just the glass reflecting oddly. $\endgroup$
    – Rumpelstiltskin
    Apr 24, 2022 at 20:54
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    $\begingroup$ You mean row 4 col 1? I noticed that, but thought the answer might be something more. $\endgroup$
    – JLee
    Apr 24, 2022 at 20:59
  • $\begingroup$ Rot13(V nterr, ohg vg'f gur gjb vaqrk svatref gung ybbx cubgbfubccrq gb zr. Jr'yy frr jung BC fnlf. Svatref pebffrq!) $\endgroup$
    – will
    Apr 24, 2022 at 21:02
  • $\begingroup$ @jlee No. Row 6, col 3. $\endgroup$
    – will
    Apr 24, 2022 at 21:04
  • $\begingroup$ I saw that one too, but decided that it was possible that the pinky finger could possibly be seen through the glass and at the bottom, giving a weak optical illusion that it was in 2 places. $\endgroup$
    – JLee
    Apr 24, 2022 at 21:14
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Is it

Row 3 Col 2 ?

On closer inspection of all images

All of them seem to have the Milky Way being "outside" of the mason jar, unlike this image which has it contained and going outwards.
The closest image to this one would be Row 6 Col 1, which has the same properties as the odd one out, with the exception of being very lit up at the bottom.

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    $\begingroup$ This is not it. The property I am looking for is much less arbitrary than this. It is not just one weird thing in one image. (That wouldn't be the spirit of Spot the Difference, since it would make the true answer too subjective.) $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 25, 2022 at 8:25
  • $\begingroup$ @Veedrac Vg jbhyqa'g whfg or gur "fbhepr" vzntr sebz juvpu nyy bs gubfr jrer trarengrq...evtug? $\endgroup$
    – Auribouros
    Apr 25, 2022 at 9:06
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, that's it, except rot13(gurl jrera'g trarengrq qverpgyl sebz gur fbhepr vzntr. Vafgrnq, crbcyr jebgr cebzcgf qrfpevovat gur fbhepr, juvpu gur znpuvar gura vagrecergrq.) $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 25, 2022 at 9:26
  • $\begingroup$ @Veedrac Is my edited guess really still incorrect ? $\endgroup$
    – Auribouros
    Apr 25, 2022 at 12:14
  • $\begingroup$ I think you should look for less arbitrary justifications, than there being one particular image with one particular property. People have pointed out that several different images seem to have unique properties, like how the jar is being held. Another I notice is that all but one of the jars is round. If you read my previous rot13, then rot13(lbh xabj gung gurfr ner trarengrq vzntrf, fb n whfgvsvpngvba fubhyq vaibyir cebcregvrf bs trarengrq vzntrf.) $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 25, 2022 at 12:27
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It is:

Row 5 col 2

Because:

The only photo where the hand is covering the lid of the jar.

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  • $\begingroup$ It is not. You may want to check the hints. The answer to this is much less arbitrary than your suggestion. $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 25, 2022 at 11:51
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Is it

row 4 col 1

because

only jar that is filled with something? There seems to be some liquid inside

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  • $\begingroup$ It is not. You may want to check the hints. The answer to this is much less arbitrary than your suggestion. $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 25, 2022 at 12:48
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Is it

Row 5 column 2.

Because

the glass jar is held from the top instead of the bottom

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  • $\begingroup$ It is not, alas. FWIW this is the same answer as Henk Groot gave. $\endgroup$
    – Veedrac
    Apr 26, 2022 at 12:11
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Row 5 column 3

Because

It's the only one where the subject is holding a cigarette.

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