An artist forfeited the Sony World Photography prize after winning it through AI-generated images.
Boris Eldagsen won the Sony World Photography contest last week, organized by the World Photography Organization. He won it for a work titled “The Electrician”. The image portrays two women, one crouched behind the other with a fearful expression, while an unknown hand approaches them both. The work was a part of his series “Psuedomnesia”. The work was first shortlisted in March.
However, soon after being announced the winner, Eldagsen issued a public statement revealing that the “photograph” was actually an AI-generated image. He also declared that he will not be accepting the award, saying: “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.”
Eldagsen further said that he entered the competition to prove a point and start a conversation about AI in art. He said that “just as photography replaced painting in the reproduction of reality, AI will replace photography,” while also adding that people should not be afraid of the future. He also hoped to start a discussion about whether the field of photography is large enough to include AI-generated art, or should be treated as a separate entity.
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Meanwhile, the World Photography Organization did not take his statement positively. They suspended all future collaborations with him while saying that Eldagson “misled” them. Meanwhile, this further fanned the scope of Artificial Intelligence in the field of art. In a similar incident last year in August, an AI-generate image won the top prize at an art fair in Colorado.
