Sony World Photography Awards top prize goes to AI-generated image

Sony's World Photography Awards 2023's creative open category was won by an AI-generated image.

According to Boris Eldagsen, who submitted the photo titled ‘PSEUDOMNESIA | The Electrician,’ he has declined the prize, saying that he, “applied as a cheeky monkey, to find out, if the competitions are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not”.

Throughout his speech, Eldagsen encouraged the photography world to discuss what constitutes photography and what does not.

He said that “with my refusal of the award I hope to speed up this debate.”

According to a spokesperson for the World Photography Organization, the “creative category of the open competition welcomes various experimental approaches to image making from cyanotypes and rayographs to cutting-edge digital practices.”

Their confirmation of Eldagsen's disclosure that the photo had been "co-created" with artificial intelligence was welcomed, but after his , “subsequent statement noting his deliberate attempts at misleading us”, they felt they could no longer attempt, “to engage in a meaningful and constructive dialogue with him”.

In his statement, the winner claimed that the organization only offered him a Q&A blog after he, “suggested for the third time that a public discussion is necessary”.

As well, he criticized the organization for only reacting to the photo after the “international photo community took up the issue on social media and discussed it so intensively that the Times and BBC inquired”.

“They had so many options to use this for good. They used none of them. Instead, they refused to answer my questions, the questions of the press, the questions of concerned photographers,” wrote Eldagsen.