The AI & The Art Debate

This photo won the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 held by World Photography Organisation.

A press release claimed it as:

“a haunting black-and-white portrait of two women from different generations, reminiscent of the visual language of 1940s family portraits.”

But this photo also became controversial quickly when the German artist Boris Eldagsen who had submitted this photo, rejected the award.

The reason he cited shocked everyone — he said the photo is generated by an AI and he submitted it to just see if the photography world is ready for artwork created by Artificial Intelligence systems.

We all know generative AI is becoming more and more capable. Many artists have started co-creating content with AI. But should an artwork generated completely by an AI be eligible to enter into competitions with human-generated work is the core question being raised.

Eldagsen is getting isolated for his actions. But the AI debate has made a stronger entrance into the art world with this award rejection and it is here to stay for some more time.