An art piece created by artificial intelligence wins an award and sparks controversy

Jason Allen submitted his art work "Space Opera" to the Colorado Exposition Art Competition in the "Digital Art/Digital Manipulated Photography" category, but the work was created using A text-to-image AI generator called Midjourney.

Earlier, a post describing Allen’s award went viral. The post generated a strong response, with many users claiming that Allen was deceiving by submitting the article, especially since most of the public has no idea how the text-to-image AI generator works. However, Allen defended his actions.

“I want to use artificial intelligence artwork to express my thoughts,” he told the media. "I feel like I did it, and I won't apologize for it."

Text-to-image artificial intelligence systems are trained on billions of pairs of image and text descriptions and mine visual patterns from them. Users then provide them with textual descriptions called prompts, and the software generates images that match the descriptions based on training data.

While these systems were previously the exclusive domain of well-funded tech companies like OpenAI and Google, they have become increasingly accessible in recent months. The system Allen uses, called Midjourney, is one of the most popular, known for its detailed aesthetic, often mimicking contemporary digital art styles. Midjourney itself is accessible through a Discord server, where users showcase their artwork and exchange tips on how to improve their output.

However, reactions to Allen's win were mixed, with many accusing him of deceiving the judges. From Allen's description of his award, it seems that the show's judges were not fully aware of how the work was created. Allen wrote in the Midjourney Discord that the artwork's "description clearly states that I created them through Midjourney," but when another user asked if he explained what the software does, Allen responded said: "Should I explain what Midjourney is?"

Allen said he has been telling people at the show that the piece is "digital art created with artificial intelligence tools" and that he doesn't need to explain Midjourney It's like digital artists don't need to explain how Adobe Illustrator works. He also highlighted the effort he put into creating the image - "I did the prompts, I spent weeks fine-tuning it, curating all the images" - adding that his PS editing accounts for "at least 10%" of the work.

The competition rules for this category describe only “artistic practices that use digital technology as part of the creative or expressive process.”

Everyone has been debating whether his actions were fair. Users praised the beauty of the painting and Allen's creative skills, but many felt he should have been more candid about his creative process. "I don't think most normal people would choose an AI photo to win an award if they knew better," one user said. Another said Allen was not sincere in his claims and would have had the show's judges understood at all what he was doing , he would not be allowed to compete. "If there was an AI art category, I would congratulate it," another user wrote. "I bet if the judges knew he used a text image generator, they wouldn't have picked him as the winner."

However, some people are more supportive, saying that the judges should be on Google Search Midjourney on Google to see how it works, or point out that Midjourney is just another digital art tool, like Photoshop or Illustrator, and this piece of art falls right into the "Digital Art/Digital Manipulated Photography" category.

On social media, some of the responses to Allen's win were more extreme. "We are watching the death of art unfold before our eyes," one user said, while another lamented that works of art are now "junk produced as cheaply and as quickly as possible, in microseconds can be consumed by the speed of infinite transmission.", "We are watching the death of art happen before our eyes."

The rise of artificial intelligence’s text-to-image generators has only just begun, but these programs are already sparking heated debate about the nature of art, whether these software pose a threat to artists’ livelihoods, and the motivations behind creating these systems. Whether the company owns the copyright to the works used to train these programs. ​

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