Photo: Miles Astray
A photo of a pink flamingo won an international photo competition.
Then it was disqualified - for being too real.
Writer and photographer Miles Astray entered his photo of the pink flamingo into the AI category of the 1839 Awards.
He won, but was shortly thereafter disqualified; it turned out his image was all human, and had no involvement from artificial intelligence at all.
Winner of AI art competition disqualified after revealing his photo was real
He was inspired to enter the image after seeing the opposite happen in conventional photographic competitions, he told RNZ's Nights.
"I thought, why not turn the story around and enter a real photo into an AI competition to show that there's still merit in work produced by real humans, real creatives, by creative means, by natural means. Mother Nature still does it best and beats the machine."
He did not realise the flamingo picture was perfect for such a stunt until he got back from the shoot, he said.
"It was such a quick instant. In that moment the bird has its neck and head kind of tucked away underneath its torso, because it just scratching its belly. It's going about its morning routine."
And although it looked AI-generated, it was completely natural, he said.
"I think it really speaks to how fantastic nature is, how creative it is, the flamingo is already a really surreal, incredible creature, its figure, its colours and everything. But in that moment, simply by scratching its belly, it becomes this absolutely unreal creature."
Once he heard the image had won, he gave the organisers the heads-up, he said.
"When they replied to me by email the co-founder and director of the award, said that they actually appreciate this, and that they think it's an important and timely statement that they hope that this can give hope to creatives out there and anybody really who's worried about the implications of AI."
The flamingo picture was a symbol of the natural world and human creativity, he said.
"In an increasingly digital world, where we do everything online, where we work online, date online, shop online, socialise online, I think this speaks to a place where we're rooted in nature, and I think that's a beautiful thing. And I think that's not going to go away and the machine cannot replace that."