Artificial Intelligence - This is the current topic on everyone's lips. From Twitter and Facebook, all the way down to Whatsapp, people have had a lot to say about the latest technological advancement. With the emergence of ChatGPT, artificial intelligence has once again come into the spotlight, with many pointing out the dangers of this technology. One of the biggest dangers of AI has to fall under the creative side of things, something this next story rightly proves.

Meet Boris Eldagsen, a German photographer, who like many other photographers, entered his piece “The Electrician” into World Photography Organization’s Sony World Photography Awards and actually won first place in the Creative Category. Boris however turned down the prize as his photograph was AI generated, using DALL-E 2.

According to euronews.com, Eldagsen wanted to make a point and opted to turn down the prize, because his image wasn't a real photo. He stated that he was looking to test if “competitions are prepared for AI images. They are not.”

He continued, saying: “AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography,” Eldagsen wrote on his website. “Therefore I will not accept the award.”

“With my refusal of the award, I hope to speed up this debate.”

“THE ELECTRICIAN” by Boris EldagsenPhoto Edition Berlin - Boris Eldagsen

His photograph, “The Electrician”, features two women in a grainy sepia tone that gives it a 1940s style. The work was created in collaboration with an AI used by Eldagsen, who refers to himself as a “photomedia artist” on his website.

"The Electrician" is part of a series by Eldagsen called "pseudomnesia," the Latin term for "fake memory." The images are "fake memories of a past, that never existed, that no-one photographed," created by putting them through AI image generators between 20 and 40 times, Eldagsen says on his website.

“I have been photographing since 1989, been a photomedia artist since 2000. After two decades of photography, my artistic focus has shifted to exploring the creative possibilities of AI generators,” Eldagsen wrote on his website. “The work SWPA has chosen is the result of a complex interplay of prompt engineering, inpainting and outpainting that draws on my wealth of photographic knowledge. For me, working with AI image generators is a co-creation, in which I am the director. It is not about pressing a button—and done it is.”

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