TIL that AI art won a major photography competition in 2023 and nobody noticed until the guy admitted it

I was reading this article on Ars Technica from last year about a photographer named Boris Eldagsen who submitted an AI generated image to the Sony World Photography Awards and actually won the creative category. He turned down the prize and then told everyone it was an AI piece to start a debate about what counts as photography now. What gets me is how real it looked to the judges they couldn't tell the difference at all. The image was this black and white portrait of two women that had that old timey photo feel but with weird glitches in the hands and skin. I keep thinking about how many other contest entries might be AI now and we just don't know. Have any of you seen that image or followed what happened after he came clean about it? I wonder if competitions should just start requiring proof or something.

2 comments

2 Comments

jakewhite16h ago

Honestly I've been messing around with AI image generators for a while now and that whole thing didn't surprise me at all lmao. Like I've made stuff that looks completely real if you don't stare at the hands too long. The hands thing is always the giveaway. But for a competition judge to not catch it that's wild, especially in a photography contest where you'd think they'd have trained eyes. I feel like competitions are gonna have to adapt or they'll get flooded with AI entries that nobody can prove are fake.

ivan_perez7h ago

Can't believe a judge actually fell for that! @jakewhite you're totally right about the hands though, I've seen some AI pics where the fingers look like twisted noodles and it's hilarious. But a photography contest judge should be able to spot weird lighting or unnatural shadows, that's basic stuff. I've noticed AI struggles with reflections too, like in glasses or water, they never get that right. Competitions better start watermarking their submission rules or something, otherwise we'll be seeing fake winning photos every month.