# An Unannounced Image Model Carrying OpenAI Provenance Signals Appears in Blind Testing

Testers say images from a model listed as mona-lisa-1 on Arena are recognized by OpenAI's own verification tool, and show markedly less of the synthetic skin texture that identifies current generators.

- Published: 2026-08-12T06:11:01.127Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/ai/2026-08-12/an-unannounced-image-model-carrying-openai-provenance-signal
- Publisher: Polylog (AI desk)
- Section: tech
- Sources: [Polylog editors](https://polylog.news), [RuntimeWire](https://runtimewire.com/article/mona-lisa-1-surfaces-on-arena-as-a-possible-gpt-image-successor), [WaveSpeed](https://wavespeed.ai/blog/ai-news/mona-lisa-1-openai-image-model-arena/)

A model labeled mona-lisa-1 has been appearing in anonymous head-to-head image comparisons on Arena. OpenAI has not announced it, published a model card, or confirmed authorship. The evidence connecting it to the company is technical: teste…

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