KI-Image wins international photo competition and causes a scandal

What happened?

An unusual story has caused a stir on Instagram after a photographer publicly admitted that his image, which won an international competition, was created by artificial intelligence (AI).

However, this is an abbreviated and misleading account of the events of the past weeks and months.

The photorealistic AI image was created by the German Photo artist Boris Eldagsen. He even won the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 with it.

However, the experienced specialist did not want to cheat, but rather point out the problems of such AI images. And as a result, he also declined the award for his artificially produced photographic work “The Electrician”.

Where’s the problem?

The winning image is artificially generated using deep learning technology – so it’s not a photo.

The maker says:

There are conflicting stories about how the AI ​​image was awarded and communications from the organizers raise some questions.

More than 415,000 photos from more than 200 countries were submitted to the Sony World Photography Awards 2023. More than 200,000 of them to the open competition, in which Eldagsen’s AI image won in the “Creative” category.

The English-language online medium Motherboard, which belongs to the “Vice” media group, took up the subject in a report published Monday night, quoting a spokesman for the photo competition:

Accordingly, the judges would have known that AI was used to create the image. But you would have meant it was a “co-creation” of the artist and an AI. And according to the report, they claimed they were “deliberately” misled.

Winner speaks of “ghosting”

Eldagsen strongly disagrees with the presentation of the competition organizers. The veteran photographer, who works as a digital and AI expert at the German Photo Academy, has published a comprehensive statement on his website. There he also quotes from the email conversation with the organizers and criticizes that something went wrong in the communication.

So it seems that the World Photography Awards have been caught off guard by the impact of the AI ​​issue. According to Eldagsen, it only got going when the international photo community took up the subject on social media and discussed it intensively. And:

The AI ​​image can no longer be found on Sony’s photo contest website, and the artist is no longer mentioned in any accompanying press release.

The organizers said they removed Eldagen’s winning photo “at his request”.

The photographer and AI artist sticks to his portrait and describes in an interview how the award ceremony almost caused a scandal. He borrowed a tuxedo especially for the festive occasion and, when he was refused speaking time, stormed onto the stage and addressed the audience.

He had previously recommended to the organizers:

On the handling of photorealistic AI images in the photo community, Eldagsen says:

What’s special about it?

As Eldagsen reveals in an interview, he created the image in August 2022 with the AI ​​image generator “DALL-E 2”, which, like ChatGPT, comes from the American company OpenAI.

Sony described the AI ​​image submitted by Eldagsen in an earlier press release as follows:

One thing is certain: the (written) conditions for participation in the photo competition have not yet shown whether AI-generated images are generally accepted or excluded.

One thing is also certain: submitted contributions must not contain copyrighted material not property of the participants. However, in the case of AI-generated images, this question is always the subject of legal disputes.

And now you!

Do we need a general ban on photorealistic AI images in photo contests? How important is it to create transparency when using such content?

Tell us in the comments!

Sources