CNN
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A German artist has rejected an award from a prestigious international photography competition after revealing that his submission was generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Berlin-based Boris Eldagsen won the creative open category at this year’s Sony World Photography Award with his entry “Pseudomnesia: The Electrician.”
The eerie black and white image shows two women from different generations – the older woman appearing to hang on to the younger woman from behind.
Organizers said they were made aware of some AI involvement, but said there had been “deliberate” attempts to mislead them.
Eldagsen said he hoped his actions would open up the conversation around the issue and lead to “separate competitions for AI-generated images.”
Eldagsen said in a statement shared on his website that he had been a “cheeky monkey” in a bid to open up the conversation around artificially 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 prestigous (sic) international PHOTOGRAPHY competition. How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it?”
He continued: “AI images and photography should not compete with eachother in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award.”
He said he applied “as a cheeky monkey” to find out if competitions “are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not.”
Eldagsen told CNN Tuesday: “It shows that at the moment the photographic world has been taken by surprise after this development that subtly you can create images that look like photography but you don’t need to have the skills and expertise of photographers.”
He said that AI had left many photographers feeling “threatened and afraid that they are going to lose their jobs which will happen.”
Eldagsen said his intention was not to create trouble, but to open up an important conversation.
“It was not about winning anything,” he said. “I was just making a test to see if they were aware – like a hacker who hacks a system not to exploit it, but to see if there are weaknesses.”
In further statements on his website, he said he had informed the organizers of AI involvement.
Organizers said that 2023 had seen the highest number of entries in the awards’ 16-year history. More than 415,000 images were entered across this year’s competitions, with more than 180,000 of them eligible for the professional categories.
Three finalists, as well as five to seven shortlisted photographers, were chosen in each category. The selected images were shot by photographers from more than 30 countries in locations ranging from an abandoned cement factory in China to a fish market in Somalia.
The World Photography Organisation,