Artists Angered As AI-Generated Art Wins First Place

An award-winning work of digital art is not sitting well with the internet. Created by Jason M. Allen and entered into the Colorado State Fair annual art competition under the “Digital Arts/Digitally-Manipulated Photography” category, Théâtre D’opéra Spatial (pictured below) beat out 18 pieces of art to claim first place and the $300 USD prize.

This issue — the art was created using an AI software called Midjourney. The tool works by entering a set of keywords where an image is then generated. The file can then be tweaked or fine-tuned to the maker’s liking with the altering of words.

While Allen is quite proud of his work, as it has not overstepped any of the rules of the contest, along with the fact that he spent over 80 hours going over 900 iterations, artists on Twitter are thinking otherwise. One user pointed out that the judges did not know that it was AI-generated and that it does not “bode well for the ‘human vs AI’ illustration discussion.”

Check out the award-winning Théâtre D’opéra Spatial below.

The bigger issue is that (presumably), the judges didn't realize it was AI, and still thought it was good enough to win. Doesn't bode well for the "human vs AI" illustration discussion.

— Seth Rutledge BLM/TLM – End Russian Tyranny (@eldritch48) August 30, 2022

In other art news, Los Angeles Banksy mural worth over $16 million USD hits auction block with entire building attached.