A winner of an international photography competition for Sony has turned down the award after saying it was generated by artificial intelligence.
The picture, which featured two women, was called ‘Psuedomnesia: The Electrician‘.
German artist Boris Eldagsen said he applied as a “cheeky monkey” to check if AI images were allowed to enter.
It’s a black-and-white portrait of two women, the elder one behind with her weathered hands, on the younger woman’s shoulders.
The image is called The Electrician, from the series Pseudomnesia, another term for false memory – which could have been a trail for the judges.
“The process has many steps, it’s not putting in three words and clicking ‘generate’,” Eldagsen explains. “I identified 11 parts of the prompt; you create an image with text prompt, then when you want to leave the frame, do something to the image outside of the painting [for example, create imperfections to the surface, as there are on The Electrician], then again you have to describe, ‘What do I want to appear?’”
“It was always a collaboration. I’ve been working in teams with artist friends for 25 years.”
Relations between him and the award body for have soured. Appearing to be embarrassed Sony have issued a statement, saying: “We no longer feel we are able to engage in a meaningful and constructive dialogue with him.”
