Step 3: Choose a Legally Appropriate Reference ImageNot every image found online is suitable as an AI reference. AI image systems can produce results that share visual characteristics with a reference, but they do not reliably reproduce an image perfectly. What is an AI reference image? An AI reference image is an existing visual used to communicate characteristics such as composition, subject structure, color, lighting, or atmosphere to an image-generation workflow. A reverse image prompt is a textual description generated or written from an existing image.