A painting created by an artificial intelligence is controversial when winning an art contest

An artist caused controversy by winning the first prize in the art contest in Colorado (United States), in the category “digital art”, at the end of August. Jason M. Allen proposed three tables produced by means of artificial intelligence, including Space Opera Theaterwho won the grand prize, Vice reports on August 31.

The tool used to make the table is called a Midjourney. It is an algorithm that allows you to create visuals from words or groups of words, a process that has recently become popular in the artificial intelligence sector.

a baroque scene

The technique, still in its infancy, sometimes gives surprising results. This is not the case for Space Opera Theater, visually coherent and whose origin is barely perceptible at first glance. It is a baroque-inspired scene, which represents three figures in gala dress in a room. In the background, a large round door offers a view of a city from above.

If the appreciation of the artistic qualities of the painting is left to the discretion of each one, the result of the contest itself has provoked a fairly homogeneous controversy among the participants. Most of these accused the winner of not having respected the spirit of the contest by using an unconventional method to give birth to his work, even if it is in the category of digital art.

Many internet users also got into the discussion when Jason Allen announced his victory in Discord messages.

weeks of work

For his part, Jason Allen defended his project, highlighting the creative process that led to the creation of these works.

“I knew this was going to create controversy. It’s interesting how all the people on Twitter who are against AI generated art are the first to forget that there is a human being behind this work. Don’t you think that’s hypocritical?” Allen said in a Discord discussion dedicated to the Midjourney tool.

The artist, who had indicated “Jason M. Allen via Midjourney” in his contribution to the contest, seems to want to continue along these lines. “This victory only encouraged my mission,” he said.