AI work sparks fierce debate after winning award

PARIS

A German artist has sparked an angry row after winning a prestigious photography prize with an entry that was generated by artificial intelligence.

Boris Eldagsen said he had been open from the start about his work but would not accept the gong from the Sony World Photography Awards because such competitions were not yet equipped to handle AI entries.

The awards body said it had been aware of the nature of the image but accused the artist of “deliberately misleading” behavior, provoking an angry reply from Eldagsen yesterday.

Sony World Photography Awards announced Eldagsen’s entry, a sepia-toned image of two women entitled “Pseudomnesia: The Electrician,” as the winner of its creative category in mid-March.

Eldagsen gave interviews at the time explaining how he had made the work and saying he wanted to spark a debate over AI.

However, he wrote last week that “AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this” and rejected the prize.

“I applied as a cheeky monkey, to find out if the competitions are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not,” he wrote.

The awards body said in its response that it had been looking forward to engaging the artist in a discussion about AI but had withdrawn the work “in keeping with his wishes.”