The unexpected twist A real photo wins awards in the AI category
TapTechNews June 13th news, with the continuous improvement of the image creation ability of generative AI, there have been some cases of photos generated by AI rather than real shooting winning awards in photography competitions. In order to deal with this trend, some well-known photography competitions have set up special AI categories, which can not only keep up with the trend of the times, but also prevent contestants from mixing AI works into traditional photography categories.
However, an unexpected reversal happened today. Photographer Miles Astray submitted his photo to the AI category of the well-known 1839 Awards. His work, named FLAMINGONE, unexpectedly won the Bronze Award of the Jury Award and the Audience Vote Award.
But the problem is that this photo is not AI-generated, but a real flamingo was photographed. The angle of the photo makes the bird seem to have no head, but it is indeed real. Astray took this photo on a beach in Aruba Island in 2022 when the flamingo was freely moving there. The camera used for shooting was a Nikon D750, with a 50mm fixed-focus lens, aperture f/1.8, and shutter speed 1/1600 second.
Not long before TapTechNews published this article, this photo was still listed on the winner list page of the 1839 Awards, showing that it won the above two awards. However, the list has now been updated, and the winners of the Bronze Award and the Audience Vote have become two other AI-generated images, which were previously only listed as Honorable Mentions. Confirmed by AndroidAuthority, the page initially did show that FLAMINGONE was the winner of these two awards.
It is worth mentioning that the jury of the award is very powerful, including professionals from well-known institutions such as The New York Times, Christie's auction house, and Getty Images.
The spokesperson of the Creative Resource Collective, the organization behind the 1839 Awards, made the following statement on this matter:
No institution believes in the power of photography more than we do. We have invited Mr. Miles Astray to work with us to write a blog post about this incident and the works he submitted, the press release, and any statement he may share. As an artist, his voice will bring a different perspective to this topic. After intense internal discussion, we decided to disqualify his work from the AI category, which is to respect other competing artists. The classification of our competition is very clear, aiming to ensure fair competition for all contestants. Each category has different judging criteria, and the entries need to meet the corresponding criteria. As he mentioned in the press release, his work does not meet the requirements of the AI-generated image category. We understand his actions to prove this point, but we also don't want to deprive other artists of the opportunity to win awards in the AI category. I believe you can understand our decision and the reasons behind it. We hope this incident can arouse the attention of other photographers to AI (and bring hopeful information).
Why did this photographer do this? AndroidAuthority understood the intention of Astray submitting the photo to the AI image competition through an interview with Astray, as everyone expected:
Of course, I'm sorry for misleading the jury, but I think they are all professionals and can understand my doubts about the AI technology and its ethical impact, which is more important than the ethical problem of me deceiving the audience. I'm glad this experiment has confirmed my hypothesis: Nothing is more amazing and creative than nature itself. I don't demonize this new technology and recognize its potential, but currently I see more clearly its limitations and potential dangers.