German photographer declines 'Sony' award after AI-generated image wins, urges debate

Record ID: 1720502

  • Title: German photographer declines 'Sony' award after AI-generated image wins, urges debate
  • Date: 18th April 2023
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (APRIL 18, 2023) (REUTERS) PHOTOGRAPHER AND ARTIST BORIS ELDAGSEN TALKING TO JOURNALIST VIA ZOOM (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHOTOGRAPHER AND ARTIST BORIS ELDAGSEN, SAYING: "I wanted to see if competitions are prepared for A.I. images to be handed in and they are not. It's very important that they are aware that there will be more and more A.I. generated images i
  • Embargoed: 2nd May 2023 15:50
  • Keywords: AI Boris Eldagsen Sony World Photography Award photography
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: Various
  • Topics: Art,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA003594618042023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MUTE PICTURES AND FILE
    German Photomedia artist Boris Eldagsen has hit the headlines and brought the A.I. debate to the forefront, specifically his question: Are photography competitions ready for the possibility of A.I. images being submitted.
    In Eldagsen’s opinion: “they are not.”
    From a small city in the South-West of Germany, Eldagsen studied photography and then conceptual art and intermedia before adding philosophy to his bow.
    Berlin-based since 1997, Eldagsen entered his work “PSEUDOMNESIA / The Electrician’ to the Sony World Photography Award, after deciding to see what would happen as the SWPA stated that any device could be used.
    In March 2023 Eldagsen was told he had won the award for the Open Competition / Creative category.
    Following the announcement Eldagsen contacted the Awards event organisers CREO and told them his image had been created using A.I. and became aware of press enquiries to the organisers about the nature of the image.
    Eldagsen says that a period of radio silence from CREO led him to commit his act of ‘disruption’ when he took to the awards stage and refused the award.
    “How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it? A.I. images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this. They are different entities. A.I. is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award,” Eldagsen says on his website of the awards ceremony speech.
    Speaking to Reuters via Zoom, Eldagsen said he felt obliged to do something public after what he felt was a refusal of the SWPA to join a debate about the future of A.I. in art and journalism.
    "I wanted to see if competitions are prepared for A.I. images to be handed in and they are not. It's very important that they are aware that there will be more and more A.I. generated images and photo competitions and it should not be mixed up. It's two different things. They look the same, but they shouldn't be in the same category," he told Reuters.
    For Eldagsen, the awards missed an important beat, by neither acknowledging that an A.I. could win nor refusing it either. At the time SWPA had said Eldagson could keep the award.
    “Yes, it is A.I. and we support it because it's a creative category and we look into the future. That would have been a perfect way to go and to create a positive outcome,” Eldagsen says of how he feels the conversation should have gone.
    "It was promised that I get the questions soon. I was waiting for 20 days, nothing. And that was basically leading to the point where I said, I need to do something disruptive, something they cannot be silent about like they have been in the past,” he said.
    To better address the topic of A.I. in the future, Eldagsen would like to see a change in terminology from ‘Photography’ to ‘Promptography’, referring to Peruvian Photographer Christian Vinces who came up with the term after reading about the incident.
    A prompt is a code, text or image used to create A.I. content. As much as Eldagsen enjoys using the technology for his art he is also worried about the dangers for society and especially journalism.
    Maintaining an infrastructure for fact checking would be time consuming and costly, but is essential, Eldagsen believes. "We need to invest in this because if we don't, democracy is going to fail. We will be manipulated by whoever wants to.”
    Reuters asked SWPA for comment, the Awards responded with a written statement, saying the judges had always been aware that “PSEUDOMNESIA / The Electrician’ was an A.I. image, adding that, "while elements of AI practices are relevant in artistic contexts of image-making, the Awards always have been and will continue to be a platform for championing the excellence and skill of photographers and artists working in the medium."
    A previous written statement from April 15, 2023 forwarded to Reuters on Tuesday evening (April 18) said that there had been "various exchanges" with Eldagsen where he had "confirmed the ‘co-creation’ of this image using AI"
    "The Creative category of the Open competition welcomes various experimental approaches to image making from cyanotypes and rayographs to cutting-edge digital practices. As such, following our correspondence with Boris and the warranties he provided, we felt that his entry fulfilled the criteria for this category, and we were supportive of his participation," the statement added.
    SWPA said they had offered to engage in "a more in-depth discussion on this topic" but said that "given his actions and subsequent statement noting his deliberate attempts at misleading us, and therefore invalidating the warranties he provided, we no longer feel we are able to engage in a meaningful and constructive dialogue with him."
    (Production: Swantje Stein, Tanya Wood)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register