An artist rejects a photography award by winning with an image generated by artificial intelligence

() — A German artist has rejected the prize of a prestigious international photography competition after revealing that the work he submitted had been generated by artificial intelligence.

Boris Eldagsen, who is based in Berlin, won the creative open category of this year’s Sony World Photography Award with his work “Pseudomnesia: The Electrician.”

The haunting black and white image shows two women from different generations, with the older one seeming to cling to the younger one.

The contest organizers claimed they knew some artificial intelligence was involved, but said there was a “deliberate” attempt to mislead them.

Eldagsen said he hoped his actions would open up the conversation around this issue and lead to “separate contests for AI-generated images.”

In its website, Eldagsen admitted to being “naughty” in trying to start a debate about AI-generated images.

“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 contest. How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI-generated? There is something in all this that doesn’t fit me, right?

He continued: “Artificial intelligence imaging and photography should not compete with each other for an award like this. They are different fields. Artificial intelligence is not photography. Therefore, I will not accept the award.”

He said he participated “like a mischievous” to find out if the contests “are set up for AI images to be submitted. And they’re not.”

It’s not about winning

Eldagsen told on Tuesday: “This shows that, right now, the world of photography has been taken by surprise by this development that can subtly create images that look like photography, but with which you don’t need to have the skills. and the experience of the photographers.”

He said that artificial intelligence has made many photographers feel “threatened and afraid of losing their job, which they will.”

Eldagsen also said that his intention was not to create trouble, but to open up an important conversation.

“It wasn’t about winning anything,” he said. “I was just running a test to see if they were aware… like a hacker that violates a system not to exploit it, but to see if there are weak points”.

In other statements on his website, he explained that he had informed the organizers about the use of artificial intelligence.

The organizers claimed that in 2023 the highest number of works submitted in the 16-year history of the awards had been recorded. In this year’s contests, more than 415,000 images were submitted, of which more than 180,000 opted for the professional categories.

In each category, three finalists were chosen, and between five and seven shortlisted. Photographers from more than 30 countries took the images ranging from an abandoned cement factory in China to a fish market in Somalia.

“misleading” statements

The World Photography Organization told that Eldagsen admitted in March to using artificial intelligence to create the image that won the contest.

“The creative category of the open competition allows for various experimental approaches to image creation, from blueprints and rayograms to cutting-edge digital practices,” the organizers explained.

“Following our correspondence with Boris and the assurances he offered us, we considered that his work met the criteria for this category and we support his participation.

In addition, we were looking forward to engaging in a deeper discussion on this topic and welcomed Boris’s desire to engage in dialogue by preparing questions for a dedicated Q&A session on him on our website.”

“Given the [Eldagsen] has decided to forfeit his prize, we have suspended our activities with him and, in accordance with his wishes, we have withdrawn him from the contest. Given his actions and his subsequent statement pointing out his deliberate attempts to deceive us and therefore invalidate the assurances he had offered us, we believe that we can no longer engage in a meaningful and constructive dialogue with him.”