German Artist Refuses Award After His AI Image Wins Prestigious Photography Prize
upstart writes:
German artist refuses award after his AI image wins prestigious photography prize:
There's some controversy in the photography world as an AI-generated image won a major prize at a prestigious competition, PetaPixel has reported. An piece called The Electrician by Boris Eldagsen took first prize in the Creative category at the World Photography Organization's Sony World Photography Awards - despite not being taken by a camera. Eldagsen subsequently refused the award, saying "AI is not photography. I applied [...] to find out if the competitions are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not."
Eldagsen's image is part of a series called PSEUDOMNESIA: Fake Memories, designed to evoke a photographic style of the 1940s. However, they are in reality "fake memories of a past, that never existed, that no one photographed. These images were imagined by language and re-edited more between 20 to 40 times through AI image generators, combining 'inpainting', 'outpainting', and 'prompt whispering' techniques."
In a blog, Eldagsen explained that he used his experience as a photographer to create the prize-winning image, acting as a director of the process with the AI generators as "co-creators." Although the work is inspired by photography, he said that the point of the submission is that it is not photography. "Participating in open calls, I want to speed up the process of the Award organizers to become aware of this difference and create separate competitions for AI-generated images," he said.
Eldagsen subsequently declined the prize. "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," he wrote. "How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn't feel right, does it? 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.
When does the processing of a 'photograph' become unacceptable? Techniques such as burning and dodging, plus various types of film processing, can all change the image that is finally produced. Digital photographs can be even more easily modified. At what point does it become an entirely new genre. Does the method of production really matter? [JR]
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