Swedish artist Annika Nordenskiöld has won the world’s first artificial intelligence art award at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale with a life-like image of sisters cuddling an octopus, which she created using computer prompts.Accepting the $2000 first prize on Sunday from Sweden for the winning image, Nordenskiöld said: “I understand the fear of AI and find it somewhat healthy. But I see it more like a colleague I am working with.
The term was coined this year when German photographer and judge at the Ballarat festival Boris Eldagsen turned down first prize in the creative open category of the Sony World Photography Awards because his image “The Electrician” was generated by AI, and in his words, was “not photography”.Boris Eldagsen
“A photographer goes out into the world and shoots what they see by chance in a certain place, but nowadays, a ‘promptographer’ can stay in a darkened room and create a computer-generated image. Seeing is no longer believing it is real,” he said.He suggested a code of ethics for photographers with perhaps watermarks to ensure authenticity of photos may be necessary.
Lawyer Alana Kushnir, who helped work out the terms and conditions of the competition which attracted entries from all over the world, said it was a courageous move on behalf of a photography festival to engage with AI.