German Artist Rejects Photography Prize Won by AI-Generated Entry, Sparks Fierce Debate

A German artist has sparked an offended row after profitable a prestigious images prize with an entry that was generated by synthetic intelligence.

Boris Eldagsen ultimately rejected the gong from the Sony World Photography Awards after concluding that such competitions weren’t but geared up to deal with AI entries.

The awards organisers initially accused the artist of “deceptive” behaviour, but removed the accusation from a later statement after a furious reply from Eldagsen on Tuesday.

Many photographers and artists fear their livelihoods are under threat from AI tools that allow anyone to create striking images with just a quick text prompt.

The rapid rise of AI image generators has already sparked legal cases, as the tools are “trained” on an unlimited variety of photographs — a lot of which may very well be copyright protected.

Last 12 months, an AI-generated paintings received a prize on the Colorado State Fair, prompting soul-searching within the artwork world.

Sony World Photography Awards introduced Eldagsen’s entry — a sepia-toned picture of two ladies entitled “Pseudomnesia: The Electrician” — as the winner of its creative category in mid-March.

Eldagsen gave interviews at the time explaining how he had made the work and saying he wanted to spark a debate over AI.

However, he wrote last week that “AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this” and rejected the prize.

“I utilized as a cheeky monkey, to search out out if the competitions are ready for AI photographs to enter. They are usually not,” he wrote.

The awards body said in its initial response that it had been looking forward to engaging the artist in a discussion about AI but had withdrawn the work “in keeping with his wishes”.

Its assertion added: “Given his actions and subsequent assertion noting his deliberate makes an attempt at deceptive us, and due to this fact invalidating the warranties he offered, we not really feel we’re in a position to interact in a significant and constructive dialogue with him.”

But Eldagsen wrote on his website that it was “nonsense” to counsel the awards physique had been keen to interact.

“They had so many choices to make use of this for good. They used none of them,” he wrote, accusing them of ignoring questions from the media and other photographers.

The organisers later sent an edited version of the statement to AFP removing the accusation that they had been misled but insisting they had been prepared to engage with Eldagsen and the AI debate.

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(This story has been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated news company feed)