Image Generated By AI Wins Art Competition, Artists Are Furious

On August 26, a man won first place in the Colorado State Fair’s fine art competition with an AI-generated artwork. “I won first place,” Sincarnate, a Discord member, revealed in a Discord message alongside his art that won the first prize.

Discord user, Sincarnate’s real name is Jason Allen, and he is the president of Incarnate Games, a tabletop gaming company based in Colorado. Allen won in the digital art category with a work called “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial,” according to the state fair’s website.

Allen’s image, which he put on canvas for submission, is stunning. It displays a weird scenario that appears to be from a space opera, and it appears to be a brilliantly executed painting.

Artists over Twitter are furious because Allen did not use any of the usual artist skills, but used an AI software called Midjourney, which lets you create art based on the different commands that the user types. The way Midjourney AI works is that a user types words like “Orange apple on moon”, and the AI searches on the web for images related to these words, combines them, and gives output in the form of a brand new image.

“We’re watching the death of artistry happen before our eyes,” OmniMorpho, a Twitter user, stated in a response that received over 2,000 likes. “If creative jobs aren’t protected from technology, even high-skilled jobs may become outdated.” “What will we have?”

Allen claims that his reviewers are judging his art based on how it was generated and that the art world will someday acknowledge AI-created art as its own category. “What if we looked at it from the other extreme, what if an artist constructed a tremendously difficult and sophisticated sequence of restrictions in order to create a piece, say, hanging upside-down and being lashed while painting,” he asked. “Should this artist’s work be judged differently than the work of another artist who created the same artwork ‘normally’?” I know what will happen in the end; I assume they will simply create a ‘artificial intelligence art’ category for things like this.”

Despite some criticism from artists worldwide, Allen’s victory has only boosted his confidence. “I’m not going to stop now,” he declared. “This victory has only strengthened my resolve.”

Source: Vice