Because of AI: Nikon disqualifies competition winner
In a microscope video competition, the original winner was disqualified for using AI. Such cases are likely to become more frequent in the future.
Nikon doesn't just build cameras; it also makes microscopes. Under the name «Small World», the traditional manufacturer has been running a competition for microscope images since 1975. On the website, you can see the top 20 photos for each year, totaling 1000 images. A visit is definitely worth it, especially if you like things colorful.
Source: Theresa Zgoda, Theresa Kugler
Source: Dr. Bram van den Broek Andriy Volkov, Dr. Kees Jalink, Dr. Reinhard Windoffer, Dr. Nicole Schwarz
Source: Dr. Greg Rouse
Source: Richard H. Lee
Source: James Dvorak
Since 2011, there has been a video competition in addition to the photo contest. This is now making headlines because the winner was retroactively disqualified. The original winning video allegedly shows cilia in a rare respiratory disease called PCD. As the BBC reports, scientists contacted Nikon after the announcement, pointing out that the video did not look like the cilia associated with this disease at all. In a re-evaluation, Nikon concluded that the video was created with the help of artificial intelligence, which is prohibited according to the competition rules.
The former runner-up of the competition has been moved up as the new winner. It shows a scene with a nematode and a Dileptus single-celled organism. It was recorded by the Vietnamese photographer Nguyen Nam.
Are photo and video competitions in danger?
Even before the AI revolution, photo competitions were susceptible to fraud. For example, in 2023, a staged photo won the CEWE Photo Award and with it a prize of 25,000 euros. It allegedly shows a scene in an Indonesian café, but in reality, it was a studio scene that took place during a Fujifilm promotion for the then-new X-T5 camera. Like all participants in this event, the winner of the competition photographed the same staged scene from start to finish.
Source: Dikye Ariani
With the new possibilities of artificial intelligence, attempts at fraud will continue to increase. The microscope competition is likely to be particularly vulnerable to this, as even the real images sometimes look like abstract art. Without specific expertise, it is difficult to assess whether such an image looks authentic.
In the media, there has been frequent talk of AI detectors lately. However, these tools cannot expose AI fraud. As a rule, they work by writing a tamper-proof proof of origin into the file. In this way, it can be proven, for example, that a photo was taken with a specific camera – or that it was created with a specific AI tool. In any case, this requires a user who wants to document this or at least does not actively prevent it. While this is worth something and promotes transparency, it is not the remedy for fraud.
In the future, it may be possible to prove authentic work seamlessly through such documentation. At the moment, however, the tools are still too difficult to access to be required as a condition of participation in creative competitions.
In that sense: Yes, photo competitions are in danger. And with them, exceptional photographic achievements in general.
My interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.
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