Photographer and artist Boris Eldagsen submitted his image "Pseudomnesia" – false memory – under a pseudonym to the Sony World Photography Awards in September.
In March, he found out that he had won – even though the picture was not a photograph. Boris Eldagsen says that he has been open about the image being AI-generated and that the idea was to start a debate about the future of photography when AI can generate a large amount of images.
"It was never about winning awards, it was about starting a debate," he says.
"Didn't support anything at all"
According to the artist, the world of photography has been paralyzed by the power of AI imagery. He also says that he does not believe that the World photography awards competition knew that the image was AI-generated.
– They said that I won and I replied that it must be clear that it is AI-made and we can use this opportunity to have a panel discussion, right? They only replied with two lines that I could keep the price and two weeks later the press release came and then there was nothing about it at all.
The World photography organization writes to Kulturnyheterna that they have always known that the image contained AI elements. The organization also writes that the prize will continue to celebrate photographic knowledge even if AI use will be part of future image creation.
'Not meaningful'
In April, Boris Eldagsen chose to renounce the award.
"Since he says that he deliberately tried to mislead us, thereby invalidly explaining the assurances he gave us, we do not think it makes sense to continue dialogue with him," the photo contest writes.
The artist says that in the world of photography, people have started talking about "promptographies" instead of AI photos to distinguish the images, but that photography will have a new role.
"The future of photography is defined by AI. We will always photograph our loved ones, but beyond that, AI will dominate," he says.
See more of Boris Eldagen's pictures in the clip.