German photographer Boris Eldagsen, who won the Creative category of the prestigious Sony World Photography Award, declined the award on the grounds that he used an artificial intelligence image generator to create his submission. The award-winning “photo”, titled Pseudomnesia: Electrician, depicts what Eldagsen described in his submission as “a haunting black-and-white portrait of two women of different generations, reminiscent of the visual language of 1940s family portraits”. In fact, Eldagsen got the job done by providing prompts for the DALL-E 2 image generator, which was developed by OpenAI, the Bay Area company responsible for the AI chatbot ChatGPT.
The Creation category of the Photography Prize has historically hosted experimental practices in image making. World Photography Award officials said they knew the work was AI-generated. “During our various exchanges with Boris Eldagsen before announcing him the winner of the Creative category of the Open competition on March 14, he had confirmed the ‘co-creation’ of this image using AI,” said a door. -speak in a press release. “In our correspondence, he explained that after “two decades of photography, my artistic focus has shifted more towards exploring the creative possibilities of AI generators” and that the greater focus on image rests strongly on his “wealth of photographic knowledge.” In accordance with the rules of the competition, the photographers provide the guarantees of their participation.
Eldagsen, who said he came into the picture as a “cheeky ape”, disputes that claim.
“Thank you for selecting this image and making it a historic moment, as it is the first AI-generated image to win a prestigious international PHOTOGRAPHY competition,” he wrote on his website. “How many of you knew or suspected this was AI generated? Something about that is wrong, isn’t it? Eldagsen said his goal in entering the work was to find out if any competitions were prepared for the AI images to enter. “They are not,” he wrote. “AI images and photography should not compete in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore, I will not accept the award. “
