A German artist has turned down a prestigious photography award after revealing that he created the winning image using OpenAI's AI image generator.
Boris Eldagsen's "The Electrician" won in a category at the World Photography Organization's Sony World Photography Awards.
- Eldagsen, a photo-media artist since 2000, said he submitted the work as a "cheeky monkey" to test whether such competitions are ready for AI-generated images.
- "They are not," he concluded in a post on his website.
- After decades of photography, Eldagsen said his focus has switched to "exploring the creative possibilities of AI generators."
- He said "The Electrician" was the result of a mixture of "prompt engineering, inpainting, and outpainting" that made use of his photography knowledge.
- However, Eldagsen concluded that "AI is not photography" and he will therefore "not accept the award."
