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AI-generated image selected for a Sony World Photography Award

98 points by draugadrotten 4y ago

PaulHoule 4y ago
I think it's an awful image personally.
- hammyhavoc 4y ago
  I would be interested to see what it was competing against. I hadn't even heard of the award.
  - pimlottc 4y ago
    The AI image was competing in the Creative category of the Open category (as opposed to Professional). Official winners gallery is here: https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-galleries/2023/open/winners/creative-2023-open-competition https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/win...
    - hammyhavoc 4y ago
      Thanks! The winner wouldn't have been my first pick against some of these. However, some have a "generated" quality to them, but that is probably the expectation of being fooled again, or heavy post.
- globular-toast 4y ago
  "Art".
- fumeux_fume 4y ago
  Seeing it's the winner just raises so many more questions about who is judging this contest.
Alchemista 4y ago
Yeah, I don't get it. It doesn't look very good to me. It is also obviously AI generated, with the telltale signs of deformed limbs and hands.
- hammyhavoc 4y ago
  And I can tell the difference between tube amps, profilers and modellers in both feel and tone, but it's good enough for the average Joe that they won't care if they like the image or sound. It only serves to illustrate the point that trying to evaluate the best x work is futile because tastes vary. Personally, I don't like the image, nor do I like any AI-generated "art" thus far. I'm a big camera wonk and a tone chaser, so I appreciate detail and that elusive quality that makes something more than just competent.
  - aenvoker 4y ago
    Camera wonking is great, but if you don’t like any AI art, that suggests you are rejecting the concept out of hand. Being so low-barrier, there is naturally a flood of images from beginners who are just futzing around. But, I hear a common refrain that sounds to me like “DeviantART.com has millions of sketches from bored 13 year olds. Therefore I don’t consider pencil to be an artistic medium.” I’d be interested in your opinions of the works of https://twitter.com/rainisto https://twitter.com/rainisto
    - hammyhavoc 4y ago
      It's not so much a rejection of concept, I just find that it does nothing for me emotionally or intellectually. I had a scroll through the Twitter profile, and whilst at least unusual in terms of content, I close the app and remember none of it. None of it is bold enough to be memorable compositionally for me. It's competent, sure, it's just unremarkable and lacks humanity. Does that mean it's "bad"? It's just not for me, in the same way I don't care for tuna even though I acknowledge that plenty of people enjoy eating tuna.
      - 4y ago
galleywest200 4y ago
My initial reaction was "great, so this is a thing now" but then I opened the article: > "I applied as a cheeky monkey, to find out, if the comeptitions (sic) are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not." I withdraw my heavy sigh. --- This did get me thinking though -- could camera manufacturers add a new tag to the EXIF data that is cryptographically signed by the camera? This could then be carried over from the RAW format to whichever format the photographer chooses to export as after their touch-ups. This could be verified by contest officiants.
- prox 4y ago
  I think it needs the actual photographic data which is unique to be encoded with the camera model perhaps? Tagging is not enough, it needs to be part of the image to really work (I am guessing)
- jncraton 4y ago
  > could camera manufacturers add a new tag to the EXIF data that is cryptographically signed by the camera They could, and some already do, but this doesn't fully solve the problem. You'd still be left with the analog loophole[1]. A sufficiently advanced attacker could feed a generated image directly to the camera sensor. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole
  - Kuinox 4y ago
    Or... Extract the keys from the camera.
    - layer8 4y ago
      Unlikely, if they use a secure enclave or similar.
      - thenickdude 4y ago
        When Canon did this, the signing key was the same for every camera of the same model, and you could extract it by running code on the camera. I don't have faith in camera companies implementing this properly. https://web.archive.org/web/20120125045005/http://www.elcomsoft.com/canon.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120125045005/http://www.elcoms...
soco 4y ago
Let me guess, Sony using AI to rank the submissions?
- doublerabbit 4y ago
  Hayday for the judging robot sitting in some small dingy room at an Japanese business complex to come across a picture generated by it's AI cousin.
- layer8 4y ago
  I was wondering if an AI wouldn’t have selected a better winner picture.
- mnadkvlb 4y ago
  the latest southpark season (S 26 currently) episode 4. was a legend of an episode for anyone interested
  - visarga 4y ago
    ah the chatGPT episode, it was bound to happen
azubinski 4y ago
"AI images and photography should not compete with eachother in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award" That is, the author of this dirty trick knew this very well from the very beginning, but nevertheless he submitted to the competition not a real shot (which is a unique stopped flat moment of reality), but a synthetic picture of which he is not the author. And after all this, the author of this trick gracefully declined the award. Someday such a logic of such bad fools will destroy this world.
- spicyusername 4y ago
  I disagree. Too many people happily go along with the status quo, despite correctly recognizing something should be changed. It takes energy, courage, and sacrifice to create change. A body at rest will remain at rest unless acted up on by an outside force. In this case, this author correctly recognized that its better to force the conversation now, himself, than let things play themselves out naturally.
  - azubinski 4y ago
    Excuse me, but what kind of "changes" are you talking about? Professionalism is primarily built on trust, including a mutual trust in professional systems. Therefore, students are not allowed to cheat on exams, for example (not only for this reason, of course, but also for this reason). If you think that the destruction of the system of mutual trust is some kind of "change", then I want to upset you, because such "changes" do not require software systems on the scale of modern "AI" at all. By this act nothing but destroying the mutual trust was done. Now the organizers of professional photography competitions will not trust photographers, and photographers will not trust the organizers of competitions.
    - krisoft 4y ago
      > Now the organizers of professional photography competitions will not trust photographers, and photographers will not trust the organizers of competitions. "organizers of professional photography competitions will not trust photographers" But this is already present. There were plagiarism or alleged plagiarism scandals [1][2][3]. There were cases of doctored photographs [4][5], or misinformation [6] Most competitions use means to protect against this to some extent [7] So what is new? 1: https://petapixel.com/2017/04/01/plagiarism-coincidence-curious-case-sony-world-photo-awards/ https://petapixel.com/2017/04/01/plagiarism-coincidence-curi... 2: https://blog.photoshelter.com/2021/10/a-student-plagiarized-an-african-artist-then-his-work-was-exhibited-at-the-milan-photo-festival/ https://blog.photoshelter.com/2021/10/a-student-plagiarized-... 3: https://www.boredpanda.com/man-steals-photo-wins-exhibition-prize-photographer-jingna-zhang https://www.boredpanda.com/man-steals-photo-wins-exhibition-... 4: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/photography/nikon-photography-competition-winning-entry-turns-out-to-be-badly-doctored-image-a6845196.html https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/photography... 5: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/arts/design/world-press-photo-revokes-prize.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/arts/design/world-press-p... 6: https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/world-press-photo-award-withdrawn-in-manipulation-scandal--79215 https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/world-press-photo-award-wi... 7: https://time.com/3706626/world-press-photo-processing-manipulation-disqualified/ https://time.com/3706626/world-press-photo-processing-manipu...
pimlottc 4y ago
Site is being hugged to death, the image is also on the author's instragram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq_XiGJIQiC/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq_XiGJIQiC/?hl=en
jamespo 4y ago
Is there any independent confirmation of this?
- ozmodiar 4y ago
  Actually yeah, the only place I'm seeing this reported is the linked website I've never heard of before, you'd think it'd be a little more widely covered.
- isaacfrond 4y ago
  Good question. Googling on 'sony world photography awards 2023 ai image' finds a single hit: this hacker news page. (why are you marked down for raising a valid concern?)
- matheweis 4y ago
  Linked from the author’s instagram: > Fox News: World in pictures: 43 jaw-dropping photos from Sony World Photography Awards finalists https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/wonderful-world-pictures-jaw-dropping-photos-sony-world-photography-awards-finalists https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/wonderful-world-pictures-j... > Image 5 of 43 "Pseudomnesia | The Electrician" by Boris Eldagsen of Germany; open competition shortlist for creative category, Sony World Photography Awards 2023. (Boris Eldagsen, Sony World Photography Awards 2023)
- isaacfrond 4y ago
  There is this Spanish page: https://www.photolari.com/imagen-ia-boris-eldagsen-sony-world-photography-awards-2023/ https://www.photolari.com/imagen-ia-boris-eldagsen-sony-worl... (Nb. there are some nsfw images in the border, for those who care about that).
onychomys 4y ago
His photo has been removed from the gallery, but here are the other finalists in the category he won. The category tends towards the abstract, so it's not super surprising that they'd confuse AI images with real ones. https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-galleries/2023/open/winners/creative-2023-open-competition https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/win...
- greggsy 4y ago
  The works by Richard PoE, Billal El Harousse and Yi Han really struck a tone with me. His post suggested that he had won the overall award, not a sub-category.
- ilyt 4y ago
  So this is photography not photoshop contest ? ...did they paint a dog to do that ? Or there is some half and half dog running around somewhere?
  - lancesells 4y ago
    I would think there are enough dogs out there that half and half exists. But clearly a Photoshop contest.
- gwern 4y ago
  It's the same thing as the Loebner Prize 'victory'. You take a highly subpar AI output, and spin it as some sort of deliberately degraded output (such as a ESL child supposedly taking the Turing Test); humans charitably overlook the flaws and assume it's the style or medium; then you ding them on supposedly not noticing the flaws.
greggsy 4y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20230325205601/https://www.eldagsen.com/sony-world-photography-awards-2023/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230325205601/https://www.eldag... >“The work… is the result of a complex interplay of prompt engineering, inpainting and outpainting that draws on my wealth of photographic knowledge. For me, working with AI image generators is a co-creation, in which I am the director. It is not about pressing a button – and done it is. It is about exploring the complexity of this process, starting with refining text prompts, then developing a complex workflow, and mixing various platforms and techniques. The more you create such a workflow and define parameters, the higher your creative part becomes.” The image is fairly derivative, and doesn’t demonstrate any traits of a well crafted generative image, nor does it show signs of the creator’s ability to draw in a topic, emotion or theme, other than ‘oooh spooky old photo’. It also doesn’t show off their knowledge of photographic and ai technique like they claim. The scratches and effects look forced, and the hands and faces just look like classic ai. It’s okay graphic design. He even goes on to say it’s not a photograph. If this isn’t an April fool’s joke, then Sony have seriously tarnished the reputation of the award.
- nashashmi 4y ago
  The website was just updated to say that Sony removed the photo
- shadowgovt 4y ago
  It's not an April Fool's joke; it was an intentional effort to deceive the competition to highlight the fact that such competitions aren't well-prepared for the addition of AI to the artist's toolbelt. The artist refused the award, and declared it was their intent to highlight this concern.
  - greggsy 4y ago
    Aaah. Didn’t pick up that detail.
  - capableweb 4y ago
    What efforts like this are missing is publishing a cryptographic hash before engaging in the deception. Otherwise it can seem like the author intentionally decided to mislead but might have changed their intention after winning. Publishing something openly like e1c7aa9150766bd5279b54951e3828ed9c19367af21f03f669eb586bd54c13b1 which can later be verified once "revealed". $ echo "I, CapableWeb, is gonna participate in Sony World Photography Award 2023 with a AI generated image in order to see if they are ready for AI generated images. 2023-04-14" | sha256sum
23B1 4y ago
What's the difference between a photo I generated with AI vs , say, one I edited using Adobe's AI-driven toolkit? This is a great debate and the right answer here for Sony (and everyone) is to have an open dialogue with creators and consider new sorts of categories and classifications so that we may revel in the spice of life – instead of letting it undermine/destroy the indefinable nature of art!
- shadowgovt 4y ago
  Sony always finds itself at the forefront of these kinds of discussions because they want to eat their cake while keeping their cake: their business model is to create and sell technology to enhance and simplify the audiovisual artistic processes, but if they enhance and simplify it too much they lower the price floor and pull money out of the market... Money they want. As the MC Lars lyric goes, "Epic's up in my face like, 'Don't steal our songs, Lars' / While Sony sells the burners that are burning CD-R's."
boringuser2 4y ago
Lots of obsolete humans a bit chafed in this discussion.
- cmdialog 4y ago
  [flagged]
- ChatGTP 4y ago
  Username checks out
  - boringuser2 4y ago
    Very reddit of you.
    - ChatGTP 4y ago
      This place has been Reddit for a long time :)
iepathos 4y ago
Can tell it's AI generated from the weird looking pinky on right hand side of the photo, looks like it tried to do a thumb there instead. Stellar faces and eyes though.
- shadowgovt 4y ago
  Credit to the artist: for the overall effect, the AI conceptual error artifacts enhance the effect. The mind picks up that "something's off" but may not immediately catch which details are the problem. Good ghost image.
pimlottc 4y ago
The official contest rules are here [0]. There is actually very little in the rules restricting how the image is created; technically it doesn't even say it has to be a photograph, although that is clearly implied. The rules mostly cover usage and legal rights. 0: https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/open https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/ope...
- omoikane 4y ago
  So the artist intentionally exploited a lack of clarity around AI in the rules to gain publicity. This seems clever in that I might not have heard about this artist or this contest otherwise, but it was a cheeky move to win a photography contest by playing a meta game.
shadowgovt 4y ago
What a get for this artist though. They've refused the award, but the recognition at having been offered it and then revealed their process is likely worth more in the long run.
tivert 4y ago
Is this fake? He claims: > I am very happy that I won the creative category of Sony World Photography Awards 2023 / Open Competition / Single Image. But I don't see that photo on the competition's website under "Winners » Creative - 2023 Open competition": https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-galleries/2023/open/winners/creative-2023-open-competition https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/win... Edit: it looks like it was taken down, but I didn't see the note about that because I was looking at https://web.archive.org/web/20230325205601/https://www.eldagsen.com/sony-world-photography-awards-2023/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230325205601/https://www.eldag... that was linked in the top comment.
- capableweb 4y ago
  Further down the article there is an update that they removed the image from the competition after he revealed it was AI generated. Edit: actually, at the top it's mentioned: >>>>>>>>>>>UPDATE 14.3.23 / 10 AM CET As photolari.com reports, my image and name have now been taken off the SWPA webpage. Hope an official statement will follow. <<<<<<<<<<<<<
  - tivert 4y ago
    You're right, it was there a month ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20230315123415/https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-galleries/2023/open/winners/creative-2023-open-competition https://web.archive.org/web/20230315123415/https://www.world... > Edit: actually, at the top it's mentioned: > >>>>>>>>>>>UPDATE 14.3.23 / 10 AM CET > As photolari.com reports, my image and name have now been taken off the SWPA webpage. Hope an official statement will follow. > <<<<<<<<<<<<< I didn't see that update because I was looking at the archived page linked in the top comment, since the main site appeared to have been hugged to death.
cmdialog 4y ago
[flagged]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
alickz 4y ago
Off topic but that site has some awful contrast issues on the text
philipswood 4y ago
Can anyone see why this was titled "the electrician"?
- matheweis 4y ago
  Speculating: a few of the related images have electrical wiring in them, could be both a literal interpretation as well as a metaphoric one. https://www.instagram.com/p/CqWMXGLIVEp/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CqWMXGLIVEp/ https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqd1CKOI7d3/ https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqd1CKOI7d3/
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
esjeon 4y ago
This is nothing significant TBH. First, the image sucks. Do you really get any artistic whatever from that image? At best, it looks like a badly photoshopped image that struggles to simulates 80's look and feel. It also has AI-specific dirtiness. I really wonder how many people can legitimately argue for this image. Perhaps this may mark that the competition is somewhat irrelevant to the taste of general public anyway, and this kinda relates to the small trolling impact he made. Second, the competition already accepts photoshopped images[1], as long as the scope of modification is clearly outlined in description. On top of that, the specific category he competed is more open to heavily photoshopped images in the first place. It's likely that images modified using AI will be allowed to some extent. (i.e. insert/remove items, minor fix to the posture, etc). [1]: https://www.worldphoto.org/help-contact#13 https://www.worldphoto.org/help-contact#13 I mean, if he were such a pioneer, he could've just based his work on smartphone photos, and provide fully honest description and still win. That could've been a real history. This? It's just a dead copycat. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- pg938hkd 4y ago
  [dead]
taftster 4y ago
I am of the opinion that the process used to create this image (or any AI image) can be considered an art form. For the author to correctly find the language and prompts needed for an AI to generate this image is a new type of art-form, from my point of view. It doesn't mean, of course, that we shouldn't be able to understand the origins of the image and correctly categorize it. Contests like this will definitely have to grapple with their handling of generated images, just like they've had to decide rules about photoshopped images.
kleiba 4y ago
Lots of comments here saying how much they dislike the picture itself, so I'm just putting in my two cents as a counter weight because I actually do like the picture.
mensetmanusman 4y ago
My iPhone uses AI to apply the lighting filters. I’m sure it will soon erase the background trash and random tourists too. We will need a new term, or the language will evolve :)

98 points by draugadrotten 4y ago

PaulHoule 4y ago

I think it's an awful image personally.

hammyhavoc 4y ago
I would be interested to see what it was competing against. I hadn't even heard of the award.
- pimlottc 4y ago
  The AI image was competing in the Creative category of the Open category (as opposed to Professional). Official winners gallery is here: https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-galleries/2023/open/winners/creative-2023-open-competition https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/win...
  - hammyhavoc 4y ago
    Thanks! The winner wouldn't have been my first pick against some of these. However, some have a "generated" quality to them, but that is probably the expectation of being fooled again, or heavy post.
globular-toast 4y ago
"Art".
fumeux_fume 4y ago
Seeing it's the winner just raises so many more questions about who is judging this contest.

Alchemista 4y ago

Yeah, I don't get it. It doesn't look very good to me. It is also obviously AI generated, with the telltale signs of deformed limbs and hands.

hammyhavoc 4y ago
And I can tell the difference between tube amps, profilers and modellers in both feel and tone, but it's good enough for the average Joe that they won't care if they like the image or sound. It only serves to illustrate the point that trying to evaluate the best x work is futile because tastes vary. Personally, I don't like the image, nor do I like any AI-generated "art" thus far. I'm a big camera wonk and a tone chaser, so I appreciate detail and that elusive quality that makes something more than just competent.
- aenvoker 4y ago
  Camera wonking is great, but if you don’t like any AI art, that suggests you are rejecting the concept out of hand. Being so low-barrier, there is naturally a flood of images from beginners who are just futzing around. But, I hear a common refrain that sounds to me like “DeviantART.com has millions of sketches from bored 13 year olds. Therefore I don’t consider pencil to be an artistic medium.” I’d be interested in your opinions of the works of https://twitter.com/rainisto https://twitter.com/rainisto
  - hammyhavoc 4y ago
    It's not so much a rejection of concept, I just find that it does nothing for me emotionally or intellectually. I had a scroll through the Twitter profile, and whilst at least unusual in terms of content, I close the app and remember none of it. None of it is bold enough to be memorable compositionally for me. It's competent, sure, it's just unremarkable and lacks humanity. Does that mean it's "bad"? It's just not for me, in the same way I don't care for tuna even though I acknowledge that plenty of people enjoy eating tuna.
    - 4y ago

galleywest200 4y ago

My initial reaction was "great, so this is a thing now" but then I opened the article: > "I applied as a cheeky monkey, to find out, if the comeptitions (sic) are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not." I withdraw my heavy sigh. --- This did get me thinking though -- could camera manufacturers add a new tag to the EXIF data that is cryptographically signed by the camera? This could then be carried over from the RAW format to whichever format the photographer chooses to export as after their touch-ups. This could be verified by contest officiants.

prox 4y ago
I think it needs the actual photographic data which is unique to be encoded with the camera model perhaps? Tagging is not enough, it needs to be part of the image to really work (I am guessing)
jncraton 4y ago
> could camera manufacturers add a new tag to the EXIF data that is cryptographically signed by the camera They could, and some already do, but this doesn't fully solve the problem. You'd still be left with the analog loophole[1]. A sufficiently advanced attacker could feed a generated image directly to the camera sensor. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole
- Kuinox 4y ago
  Or... Extract the keys from the camera.
  - layer8 4y ago
    Unlikely, if they use a secure enclave or similar.
    - thenickdude 4y ago
      When Canon did this, the signing key was the same for every camera of the same model, and you could extract it by running code on the camera. I don't have faith in camera companies implementing this properly. https://web.archive.org/web/20120125045005/http://www.elcomsoft.com/canon.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120125045005/http://www.elcoms...

soco 4y ago

Let me guess, Sony using AI to rank the submissions?

doublerabbit 4y ago
Hayday for the judging robot sitting in some small dingy room at an Japanese business complex to come across a picture generated by it's AI cousin.
layer8 4y ago
I was wondering if an AI wouldn’t have selected a better winner picture.
mnadkvlb 4y ago
the latest southpark season (S 26 currently) episode 4. was a legend of an episode for anyone interested
- visarga 4y ago
  ah the chatGPT episode, it was bound to happen

azubinski 4y ago

"AI images and photography should not compete with eachother in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award" That is, the author of this dirty trick knew this very well from the very beginning, but nevertheless he submitted to the competition not a real shot (which is a unique stopped flat moment of reality), but a synthetic picture of which he is not the author. And after all this, the author of this trick gracefully declined the award. Someday such a logic of such bad fools will destroy this world.

spicyusername 4y ago
I disagree. Too many people happily go along with the status quo, despite correctly recognizing something should be changed. It takes energy, courage, and sacrifice to create change. A body at rest will remain at rest unless acted up on by an outside force. In this case, this author correctly recognized that its better to force the conversation now, himself, than let things play themselves out naturally.
- azubinski 4y ago
  Excuse me, but what kind of "changes" are you talking about? Professionalism is primarily built on trust, including a mutual trust in professional systems. Therefore, students are not allowed to cheat on exams, for example (not only for this reason, of course, but also for this reason). If you think that the destruction of the system of mutual trust is some kind of "change", then I want to upset you, because such "changes" do not require software systems on the scale of modern "AI" at all. By this act nothing but destroying the mutual trust was done. Now the organizers of professional photography competitions will not trust photographers, and photographers will not trust the organizers of competitions.
  - krisoft 4y ago
    > Now the organizers of professional photography competitions will not trust photographers, and photographers will not trust the organizers of competitions. "organizers of professional photography competitions will not trust photographers" But this is already present. There were plagiarism or alleged plagiarism scandals [1][2][3]. There were cases of doctored photographs [4][5], or misinformation [6] Most competitions use means to protect against this to some extent [7] So what is new? 1: https://petapixel.com/2017/04/01/plagiarism-coincidence-curious-case-sony-world-photo-awards/ https://petapixel.com/2017/04/01/plagiarism-coincidence-curi... 2: https://blog.photoshelter.com/2021/10/a-student-plagiarized-an-african-artist-then-his-work-was-exhibited-at-the-milan-photo-festival/ https://blog.photoshelter.com/2021/10/a-student-plagiarized-... 3: https://www.boredpanda.com/man-steals-photo-wins-exhibition-prize-photographer-jingna-zhang https://www.boredpanda.com/man-steals-photo-wins-exhibition-... 4: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/photography/nikon-photography-competition-winning-entry-turns-out-to-be-badly-doctored-image-a6845196.html https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/photography... 5: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/arts/design/world-press-photo-revokes-prize.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/arts/design/world-press-p... 6: https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/world-press-photo-award-withdrawn-in-manipulation-scandal--79215 https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/world-press-photo-award-wi... 7: https://time.com/3706626/world-press-photo-processing-manipulation-disqualified/ https://time.com/3706626/world-press-photo-processing-manipu...

pimlottc 4y ago

Site is being hugged to death, the image is also on the author's instragram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq_XiGJIQiC/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq_XiGJIQiC/?hl=en

jamespo 4y ago

Is there any independent confirmation of this?

ozmodiar 4y ago
Actually yeah, the only place I'm seeing this reported is the linked website I've never heard of before, you'd think it'd be a little more widely covered.
isaacfrond 4y ago
Good question. Googling on 'sony world photography awards 2023 ai image' finds a single hit: this hacker news page. (why are you marked down for raising a valid concern?)
matheweis 4y ago
Linked from the author’s instagram: > Fox News: World in pictures: 43 jaw-dropping photos from Sony World Photography Awards finalists https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/wonderful-world-pictures-jaw-dropping-photos-sony-world-photography-awards-finalists https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/wonderful-world-pictures-j... > Image 5 of 43 "Pseudomnesia | The Electrician" by Boris Eldagsen of Germany; open competition shortlist for creative category, Sony World Photography Awards 2023. (Boris Eldagsen, Sony World Photography Awards 2023)
isaacfrond 4y ago
There is this Spanish page: https://www.photolari.com/imagen-ia-boris-eldagsen-sony-world-photography-awards-2023/ https://www.photolari.com/imagen-ia-boris-eldagsen-sony-worl... (Nb. there are some nsfw images in the border, for those who care about that).

onychomys 4y ago

His photo has been removed from the gallery, but here are the other finalists in the category he won. The category tends towards the abstract, so it's not super surprising that they'd confuse AI images with real ones. https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-galleries/2023/open/winners/creative-2023-open-competition https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/win...

greggsy 4y ago
The works by Richard PoE, Billal El Harousse and Yi Han really struck a tone with me. His post suggested that he had won the overall award, not a sub-category.
ilyt 4y ago
So this is photography not photoshop contest ? ...did they paint a dog to do that ? Or there is some half and half dog running around somewhere?
- lancesells 4y ago
  I would think there are enough dogs out there that half and half exists. But clearly a Photoshop contest.
gwern 4y ago
It's the same thing as the Loebner Prize 'victory'. You take a highly subpar AI output, and spin it as some sort of deliberately degraded output (such as a ESL child supposedly taking the Turing Test); humans charitably overlook the flaws and assume it's the style or medium; then you ding them on supposedly not noticing the flaws.

greggsy 4y ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20230325205601/https://www.eldagsen.com/sony-world-photography-awards-2023/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230325205601/https://www.eldag... >“The work… is the result of a complex interplay of prompt engineering, inpainting and outpainting that draws on my wealth of photographic knowledge. For me, working with AI image generators is a co-creation, in which I am the director. It is not about pressing a button – and done it is. It is about exploring the complexity of this process, starting with refining text prompts, then developing a complex workflow, and mixing various platforms and techniques. The more you create such a workflow and define parameters, the higher your creative part becomes.” The image is fairly derivative, and doesn’t demonstrate any traits of a well crafted generative image, nor does it show signs of the creator’s ability to draw in a topic, emotion or theme, other than ‘oooh spooky old photo’. It also doesn’t show off their knowledge of photographic and ai technique like they claim. The scratches and effects look forced, and the hands and faces just look like classic ai. It’s okay graphic design. He even goes on to say it’s not a photograph. If this isn’t an April fool’s joke, then Sony have seriously tarnished the reputation of the award.

nashashmi 4y ago
The website was just updated to say that Sony removed the photo
shadowgovt 4y ago
It's not an April Fool's joke; it was an intentional effort to deceive the competition to highlight the fact that such competitions aren't well-prepared for the addition of AI to the artist's toolbelt. The artist refused the award, and declared it was their intent to highlight this concern.
- greggsy 4y ago
  Aaah. Didn’t pick up that detail.
- capableweb 4y ago
  What efforts like this are missing is publishing a cryptographic hash before engaging in the deception. Otherwise it can seem like the author intentionally decided to mislead but might have changed their intention after winning. Publishing something openly like e1c7aa9150766bd5279b54951e3828ed9c19367af21f03f669eb586bd54c13b1 which can later be verified once "revealed". $ echo "I, CapableWeb, is gonna participate in Sony World Photography Award 2023 with a AI generated image in order to see if they are ready for AI generated images. 2023-04-14" | sha256sum

23B1 4y ago

What's the difference between a photo I generated with AI vs , say, one I edited using Adobe's AI-driven toolkit? This is a great debate and the right answer here for Sony (and everyone) is to have an open dialogue with creators and consider new sorts of categories and classifications so that we may revel in the spice of life – instead of letting it undermine/destroy the indefinable nature of art!

shadowgovt 4y ago
Sony always finds itself at the forefront of these kinds of discussions because they want to eat their cake while keeping their cake: their business model is to create and sell technology to enhance and simplify the audiovisual artistic processes, but if they enhance and simplify it too much they lower the price floor and pull money out of the market... Money they want. As the MC Lars lyric goes, "Epic's up in my face like, 'Don't steal our songs, Lars' / While Sony sells the burners that are burning CD-R's."

boringuser2 4y ago

Lots of obsolete humans a bit chafed in this discussion.

cmdialog 4y ago
[flagged]
ChatGTP 4y ago
Username checks out
- boringuser2 4y ago
  Very reddit of you.
  - ChatGTP 4y ago
    This place has been Reddit for a long time :)

iepathos 4y ago

Can tell it's AI generated from the weird looking pinky on right hand side of the photo, looks like it tried to do a thumb there instead. Stellar faces and eyes though.

shadowgovt 4y ago
Credit to the artist: for the overall effect, the AI conceptual error artifacts enhance the effect. The mind picks up that "something's off" but may not immediately catch which details are the problem. Good ghost image.

pimlottc 4y ago

The official contest rules are here [0]. There is actually very little in the rules restricting how the image is created; technically it doesn't even say it has to be a photograph, although that is clearly implied. The rules mostly cover usage and legal rights. 0: https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/open https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/ope...

omoikane 4y ago
So the artist intentionally exploited a lack of clarity around AI in the rules to gain publicity. This seems clever in that I might not have heard about this artist or this contest otherwise, but it was a cheeky move to win a photography contest by playing a meta game.

shadowgovt 4y ago

What a get for this artist though. They've refused the award, but the recognition at having been offered it and then revealed their process is likely worth more in the long run.

tivert 4y ago

Is this fake? He claims: > I am very happy that I won the creative category of Sony World Photography Awards 2023 / Open Competition / Single Image. But I don't see that photo on the competition's website under "Winners » Creative - 2023 Open competition": https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-galleries/2023/open/winners/creative-2023-open-competition https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/win... Edit: it looks like it was taken down, but I didn't see the note about that because I was looking at https://web.archive.org/web/20230325205601/https://www.eldagsen.com/sony-world-photography-awards-2023/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230325205601/https://www.eldag... that was linked in the top comment.

capableweb 4y ago
Further down the article there is an update that they removed the image from the competition after he revealed it was AI generated. Edit: actually, at the top it's mentioned: >>>>>>>>>>>UPDATE 14.3.23 / 10 AM CET As photolari.com reports, my image and name have now been taken off the SWPA webpage. Hope an official statement will follow. <<<<<<<<<<<<<
- tivert 4y ago
  You're right, it was there a month ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20230315123415/https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-galleries/2023/open/winners/creative-2023-open-competition https://web.archive.org/web/20230315123415/https://www.world... > Edit: actually, at the top it's mentioned: > >>>>>>>>>>>UPDATE 14.3.23 / 10 AM CET > As photolari.com reports, my image and name have now been taken off the SWPA webpage. Hope an official statement will follow. > <<<<<<<<<<<<< I didn't see that update because I was looking at the archived page linked in the top comment, since the main site appeared to have been hugged to death.

cmdialog 4y ago

[flagged]

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

alickz 4y ago

Off topic but that site has some awful contrast issues on the text

philipswood 4y ago

Can anyone see why this was titled "the electrician"?

matheweis 4y ago
Speculating: a few of the related images have electrical wiring in them, could be both a literal interpretation as well as a metaphoric one. https://www.instagram.com/p/CqWMXGLIVEp/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CqWMXGLIVEp/ https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqd1CKOI7d3/ https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqd1CKOI7d3/

deleted 4y ago

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esjeon 4y ago

This is nothing significant TBH. First, the image sucks. Do you really get any artistic whatever from that image? At best, it looks like a badly photoshopped image that struggles to simulates 80's look and feel. It also has AI-specific dirtiness. I really wonder how many people can legitimately argue for this image. Perhaps this may mark that the competition is somewhat irrelevant to the taste of general public anyway, and this kinda relates to the small trolling impact he made. Second, the competition already accepts photoshopped images[1], as long as the scope of modification is clearly outlined in description. On top of that, the specific category he competed is more open to heavily photoshopped images in the first place. It's likely that images modified using AI will be allowed to some extent. (i.e. insert/remove items, minor fix to the posture, etc). [1]: https://www.worldphoto.org/help-contact#13 https://www.worldphoto.org/help-contact#13 I mean, if he were such a pioneer, he could've just based his work on smartphone photos, and provide fully honest description and still win. That could've been a real history. This? It's just a dead copycat. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

pg938hkd 4y ago
[dead]

taftster 4y ago

I am of the opinion that the process used to create this image (or any AI image) can be considered an art form. For the author to correctly find the language and prompts needed for an AI to generate this image is a new type of art-form, from my point of view. It doesn't mean, of course, that we shouldn't be able to understand the origins of the image and correctly categorize it. Contests like this will definitely have to grapple with their handling of generated images, just like they've had to decide rules about photoshopped images.

kleiba 4y ago

Lots of comments here saying how much they dislike the picture itself, so I'm just putting in my two cents as a counter weight because I actually do like the picture.

mensetmanusman 4y ago

My iPhone uses AI to apply the lighting filters. I’m sure it will soon erase the background trash and random tourists too. We will need a new term, or the language will evolve :)