it House News on June 13, with the continuous improvement of generative AI image creation capabilities, there have been some cases in photography competitions where "photos" generated by AI instead of real shots have won awards. In order to cope with this trend, some well-known photography competitions have established special AI categories, which 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 occurred today. Photographer Miles Astray submitted his photos to the AI category of the prestigious 1839 awards. His work is called "f l a m i n g o n e", and unexpectedly won the Bronze Medal of the Jury Award and the Audience Choice Award.
But the problem is that this photo was not generated by AI, but a real flamingo. The angle of the photo makes the bird look like it has no head, but it is indeed real . Astre took the photo in 2022 on a beach in Aruba where flamingos were roaming freely. The camera used when shooting was a Nikon d750 with a 50mm prime lens, aperture f/1.8, and shutter speed 1/1600 second.
Shortly before it House published this article, this photo was also listed on the winner list page of the 1839 Awards, showing that it had won the above two awards. However, the list has now been updated, with the winner of the Bronze Medal and Audience Choice becoming two more AI-generated images that were previously listed as just "honorable mentions." Confirmed by android authority, the page initially showed "f l a m i n g o n e" as the winner of both awards.
It is worth mentioning that the jury for this award is very strong, including professionals from well-known institutions such as the New York Times, Christie's auction house, and Getty Images.
1839 A spokesperson for the Creative Resource Collective, the organization behind the award, issued the following statement on the matter:
No organization believes more in the power of photography than we do. We have invited Mr. Miles Astley to collaborate with us in writing a blog post about this event as well as his submissions, press releases and any statements he may share. As an artist, his voice will bring a different perspective to the topic. After intense internal discussions, we have decided to disqualify his work from the ai category out of respect for other participating artists. The classification of our competitions is very clear and designed to ensure fair competition for all entrants. Each category has different judging criteria and entries need to meet the corresponding criteria. As he mentioned in the press release, his work does not qualify under the category of AI-generated images. We understand that he is doing this to prove a point, but we also don’t want to deprive other artists of the opportunity to win in the AI category. I hope you understand our decision and the reasons behind it. We hope this incident will draw attention to AI (and bring a message of hope) to other photographers.
Why did this photographer do this? android authority interviewed Astre and learned about his intention to submit the photo to the ai photo contest, as everyone expected:
Of course, I am sorry for misleading the jury, but I think they are all professionals and can understand me This move raises questions about AI technology and its ethical implications, which is more important than the ethical issue of me deceiving the audience. I'm glad that this experiment confirmed my hypothesis: there is nothing more magical and creative than nature itself. I don’t demonize this new technology and recognize its potential, but now I see its limitations and potential dangers more clearly.
