The Uncanny Accuracy of AI in Geo-Guessing: A Deep Dive

TL;DR

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly proficient at determining locations from minimal visual and auditory cues. This article explores how AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity can analyze background photos and even bird songs to geo-locate individuals with surprising accuracy, raising significant privacy concerns.

The Uncanny Accuracy of AI in Geo-Guessing: A Deep Dive

If you’re concerned about revealing your exact location—or perhaps even misrepresenting it—you should be mindful of the background details in your photos. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become remarkably adept at guessing your location based on the smallest clues, including visual and even auditory hints.

The Rise of Geo-Guessing

Our interest in AI’s geo-guessing capabilities was piqued by an article in TechRadar claiming that ChatGPT o3 can determine your location from almost any photo. To test this, we removed the metadata from selected photographs and used a VPN to ensure our current location remained undisclosed.

Initial Tests with Landmarks

We began with an easy challenge: a landmark in a large city, captured from an unusual angle. The photo was a selfie taken through an office window in Cork, Ireland.

Unsurprisingly, ChatGPT accurately identified the location:

“Alright, let’s break this one down — this does have some standout features that make it easier to geo-locate. Here’s the reasoning step by step:”

Architectural Clues:

• The old stone building with Georgian-style windows and masonry is typical of the British Isles, particularly Ireland and the UK.
• The distinctive clock tower with a green copper dome is common in Irish civic buildings.
• The mix of historical and modern buildings suggests urban regeneration in a historically rich city.

Infrastructure and Environment:

• The modern bridge and blue banner advertisement, along with the tree-lined waterfront, indicate a city that integrates riverways into its urban design.
• The road signs and left-hand traffic further support the guess of Ireland or the UK.

Key Landmark:

• The building with the green dome resembles Cork City Hall, and the angle shows the old Custom House building and modern offices across the River Lee, which runs through Cork.

Perplexity also demonstrated similar accuracy with the same photo:

“This image provides several strong clues for geo-guessing: The architecture of the foreground building is classic Georgian or early Victorian, common in the British Isles, especially Ireland and the UK. The river, modern glass buildings, and the steel bridge suggest a city that blends historical and contemporary elements. The distinctive feature is the clock tower with a green dome in the background, a well-known landmark: the Cork Courthouse clock tower in Cork, Ireland.”

Advanced Tests with Minimal Clues

To increase the difficulty, we tested a photo with fewer obvious clues:

ChatGPT’s analysis was impressively detailed:

Visual Clues:

• Architecture: The modular, prefabricated buildings with light-colored paneling and dark window/door frames are common in northern Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, or the UK.
• Landscape: The flat terrain with closely trimmed hedges suggests low-lying regions like the Netherlands or Belgium.
• Infrastructure & Construction Tools: The pavers and yellow wheelbarrows are common in northern and western European construction.
• Weather and Lighting: The overcast sky and soft, diffused lighting are typical of northern Europe in autumn or early spring.
• Small Details: The wheelbarrow brand “Fort,” a Dutch manufacturer, was a strong clue.

Likely Guess:

• The Netherlands 🇳🇱

Narrowing it Down:

• Given the modular housing, flat landscape, and Fort-brand wheelbarrow, this could be a holiday park, construction site, or suburban area in the Dutch countryside, possibly in North Holland, South Holland, or Friesland.

Perplexity also performed well, concluding:

“Based on architectural style, landscaping, and contextual clues, this scene is almost certainly from the Netherlands. It showcases the country’s embrace of modular housing and practical, tidy outdoor spaces, reflecting broader trends in Dutch residential design and sustainable living.”

Geo-Guessing with Bird Songs

AI’s ability to analyze visual clues is well-established, but what about auditory clues? Inspired by the Merlin Bird ID app, which identifies birds by their songs, we explored whether AI could geo-locate based on bird songs.

Perplexity’s response was insightful:

“How Many Species Are Needed? One Species: Sometimes, a single species is enough if it’s highly range-restricted. A Few Species (3–5): In most cases, hearing three to five distinct species can allow for a strong guess. More Species, More Precision: The more species you can identify, the more precisely you can geo-locate.”

We tested this by providing a list of bird songs to both ChatGPT and Perplexity:

Latin Name	Common Name	Clue
Fringilla coelebs	Chaffinch	Common across Europe
Turdus merula	Eurasian Blackbird	Also common across Europe
Parus major	Great Tit	Ubiquitous, widespread
Grus grus	Common Crane	Migratory — breeds in Scandinavia, Baltics, parts of Central Europe
Carduelis carduelis	European Goldfinch	Europe and western Asia
Turdus viscivorus	Mistle Thrush	Forests, open woodland — common in Europe
Certhia brachydactyla	Short-toed Treecreeper	Avoids northern/colder parts of Europe (rare in the UK, absent in Scandinavia)
Ardea alba	Great Egret	Formerly rare in Europe, now expanding — increasingly common in wetlands and rivers of Central and Southern Europe
Sylvia atricapilla	Eurasian Blackcap	Woodland; migratory in north, resident in south
Anthus trivialis	Tree Pipit	Breeds in open woodlands across Europe; migratory
Vanellus vanellus	Northern Lapwing	Farmland, wet grasslands; declining in the west but still widespread

Perplexity’s analysis was impressive:

“Given all of these factors, my best guess is that you were somewhere in Northern Europe, likely Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, or the UK. Without more information about habitat (e.g., forest, farmland, coast), it’s difficult to narrow it down further.”

ChatGPT’s response was also detailed:

“You were likely in Germany — possibly in northern or eastern Germany (e.g., Brandenburg or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), which is: On the Grus grus migration route, Rich in mixed forests and wetlands, Within the range of Certhia brachydactyla, Likely to host all the species you heard, in late April.”

In reality, the birds were recorded near the Dutch-German border, highlighting the AI’s impressive but not perfect accuracy.

Conclusion

If you’re into selfies or vlogging and want to keep your location private, be very mindful of your visual and auditory surroundings. Even subtle clues like a specific wheelbarrow brand or the sound of a bird with a limited habitat can reveal your location. With enough clues, AI can pinpoint your exact whereabouts. As social media is increasingly used for AI training, these capabilities are likely to become even more accurate.

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