AI Generated Pic Gets 1st Prize At Photography Contest, Winner Refuses Award

German artist Boris Eldagsen's AI Image features a black-and-white image of two women from various generations evoking Melancholia.

New Delhi: An Artificial Intelligence (AI) Generated Pic was given 1st Prize At the Sony World Photography Awards 2023, but the winner has said that he would not accept it.

German artist Boris Eldagsen, the creator of the AI Image titled 'Pseudomnesia: The Electrician,' thanked the jury for selecting his image, however he refused the awards saying 'something about this doesn’t feel right.'

 “Thank you for selecting my image and making this a historic moment, as it is the first AI generated image to win in a prestigious international PHOTOGRAPHY competition. How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it?," Eldagsen said.

Eldagsen AI Image features a black-and-white image of two women from various generations evoking Melancholia. Arguing further for not accepting the award, Eldagsen added that AI images and photography images are different entities and hence they should not compete with each other.

"AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award," he said.

Eldagsen said that a there needs to be a new debate on the society's paradigm of an ideal photography. He argued that there needs to be a categorical differentiation of what it wants to call a photography and what not.

"I applied as a cheeky monkey, to find out, if the competitions are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not.

We, the photo world, need an open discussion. A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not. Is the umbrella of photography large enough to invite AI images to enter – or would this be a mistake? With my refusal of the award I hope to speed up this debate," Eldagsen said.

Meanwhile, As per BBC reports, the award's organisers claim Eldagsen misled them about the degree of AI that would be applied.

Refuting the claims by the organisers Eldagsen shared a detailed chronology of events on his blogpost where he stated how there was a clear 'communication problem' in the organisers' team and that many of his questions in email communication over the last months 'have never been answered by SWPA'.

"...that that you now want to give the impression that you wanted a dialogue but i don’t is nonsense. Only after I suggested for the third time that a public discussion is necessary did you offer me a Q&A on your blog to be published before the award ceremony – which I happily said yes to," he added.