Featured Image Credit: BBC/Boris Eldagsen
Topics: Art, News, Technology, Artificial Intelligence
Gregory Robinson
Topics: Art, News, Technology, Artificial Intelligence
The artist who won a major photography award has refused his prize after shocking everyone by revealing his work was created by AI.
Boris Eldagsen, a German artist, entered his work entitled Pseudomnesia: The Electrician for consideration at the Sony World Photography Award.
The artist won the creative open category last week but he has now revealed how the picture came to be.
The award-winning picture in question showed a moving black-and-white portrait of two women from different generations, however, it's not what it seems.
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Eldagsen has now confirmed he had been a ‘cheeky monkey’ and created the image using AI to test the competition and to create a discussion about the future of photography.
In a statement posted on his website, the artist admitted how he made the image and thanked the judges for ‘selecting my image and making this a historic moment’. He also questioned if any of the judges ‘knew or suspected that it was AI-generated’.
He wrote: “AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this.
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“They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept this award.”
He even said: "Something about this doesn't feel right, does it?" and he is right, as the older woman in particular does appear to look fairly synthetic.
A spokesperson for the World Photography Organisation revealed that before Eldagsen was announced as the winner, they had conversations where he confirmed the picture was a ‘co-creation’ using AI.
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“The creative category of the open competition welcomes various experimental approaches to image making from cyanotypes and rayographs to cutting-edge digital practices,” the spokesperson told BBC News.
"As such, following our correspondence with Boris and the warranties he provided, we felt that his entry fulfilled the criteria for this category, and we were supportive of his participation.
"Additionally, we were looking forward to engaging in a more in-depth discussion on this topic and welcomed Boris' wish for dialogue by preparing questions for a dedicated Q&A with him for our website.
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"As he has now decided to decline his award we have suspended our activities with him and in keeping with his wishes have removed him from the competition."
The spokesperson stressed that the awards ‘always have been and will continue to be a platform for championing the excellence and skill of photographers and artists working in the medium’.
The usage of AI across various mediums has exploded in recent months, including essay writing to chatbox therapists and AI song covers which has become a cause of concern for some.