“AI” competes in an art competition and wins 1st place: a deep dive on why I think this is wrong

I recently found out about a case regarding an “artist” who used AI to generate a piece to compete in an art competition. As I dug deeper into this case, I came to find out that the “artist,” Jason Allen, had actually placed first in this competition and was looking to claim copyright protection of the piece.

Out of the 18 pieces submitted into the art competition, Allen’s generation took the first place Prize.

The piece itself depicts multiple women congregated in a large room with a giant circle, revealing the outside.

“Rather than hating on the technology or the people behind it, we need to recognize that it’s a powerful tool and use it for good so we can all move forward rather than sulking about it,” Allen says.

Although the piece is beautiful, my problem with it is that it was generated using Artificial Intelligence. The use of Artificial Intelligence in a competition setting should not be permitted unless the competition rules explicitly say that the people competing can use it. While the invention of AI has given society many great things to work with, there will always be people who will abuse its features and making an argument that they are not abusing it but exploring its features and using them to the fullest.

In this specific case, Jason Allen not only abused Midjourney, but cheated every person who submitted pieces into the art competition a win.

Not only did Allen win the competition with a generated piece of art that he did not create, but asked an AI to create for him, but he is now also requesting copyright protection for the piece, which he was rejected from receiving.

In my opinion, I believe that there he should be revoked of the first-place medal for the art piece he submitted for the competition. Claiming that it is his art that he created is false because he created it using generative AI. Not only does this prove my point made on my earlier post, but this is also something I never thought would happen. Generating an image to submit in a competition, yes, but never that generated image winning the competition with no questioning on its authenticity, given that it was created with AI.