Colorado State Fair: AI-generated work wins art competition

It was probably only a matter of time before such a message made the rounds: At an art competition in the US state of Colorado, a participant prevailed that some people now deny is an artist at all - because he was responsible for creating the winning image used a software called Midjourney.

Midjourney is a so-called text-to-image generator that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate images based on text input.

Such generators are currently a major grid trend: The results they deliver are sometimes spectacularly good (read more about this here).

With programs such as Midjourney, Crayion and Stable Diffusion, there are currently several tools in circulation that generate images that are sometimes hardly or not at all distinguishable from photos or the works of professional illustrators.

In Colorado, board game developer Jason Allen managed to beat ten competitors in a category open to amateurs and took first place.

The excellent work »Théâtre D'opéra Spatial«, created with the help of Midjourney, combines the aesthetics of an opera performance with science fiction-like visual elements.

A Discord post that went viral on Twitter

Allen initially reported his success himself on the Discord platform.

But his post on Twitter got more attention, where a screenshot of the Discord post was retweeted more than 11,000 times.

"Someone entered an art competition with an AI-generated work and won first prize," the Twitter user who shared the screenshot wrote, "Yeah, that sucks."

There is now a heated debate on social media about whether Allen is an artist or not, and whether he should have the award he won at the Colorado State Fair revoked for letting an AI tool work for him.

On closer inspection, however, the alleged art scandal is not even a scandal: Jason Allen himself states that when he submitted the work - on canvas, by the way - he pointed out verbally and in writing that midjourney was involved.

He wrote on Discord that he signed it “by Jason M. Allen via Midjourney”.

Olga Robak, who does press work for the Colorado State Fair, has now also confirmed that Allen did not hide Midjourney's commitment.

However, it is unclear whether the jury knew what to do with the name of the software and the technology behind it.

The picture has been reworked

Allen also submitted his work, along with two similarly titled AI images, in an appropriate category called Digital Art/Digitally Manipulated Photography.

Digital art is defined as »artistic practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative process or presentation«.

The guidelines do not contain an explicit indication of whether or not AI tools such as Midjourney are permitted.

Press secretary Olga Robak said Allen did not break any rules, according to a preliminary investigation.

In an interview with local newspaper The Pueblo Chieftain, Allen also pointed out that his winning image did not come out of the AI ​​tool one-to-one as submitted.

He post-processed all three submitted images in Photoshop and then scaled them up with Gigapixel software.

On Discord, Allen speaks of a Photoshop share of "at least ten percent".

According to him, a total of around 80 hours of work went into the project.

He chose his three motifs from a total of 900 options.

Critics of his actions accuse Allen of hypocrisy.

On Discord, he writes that it's "interesting to see that all the people on Twitter who are against AI-generated art are the first to throw someone to the wolves by discrediting the human element."

"I will not apologize for this"

He wanted to set an example by submitting the AI ​​works, Allen said in an interview with The Pueblo Chieftain.

"I feel like I've succeeded, and I won't apologize for it." In the future, Allen says he could also envision a separate competition category specifically for AI art.

According to the newspaper, he compares the prejudice against AI art to the initial rejection of photography, when some people thought taking photos was "just standing there and pressing a button".

"A lot of people say, 'AI will never take over the creative professions, it's never going to be something artists and sculptors have to worry about,'" Allen said.

The discussion had already begun and one had to “deal with it right now”.

According to the report, his first prize brought Allen just $300 in prize money, along with some hate comments online.

He now wants to sell the canvas version of his winning picture – for $750.