The Colorado State Fair’s first prize went to Jason Allen, who didn’t have much to do with the image: he didn’t technically put the basics together…

So Allen won first prize at the fair, but not everyone liked the idea, although he did admit all the while that it wasn’t his work, as his entry was awarded first place with it stating “Jason Allen via Midjourney”. By his admission, he spent several weeks working on the prompts and “finished” the images created by Midjourney by hand in Photoshop.

Midjourney is one of several artificial intelligence image creators currently in beta (Craiyon is one example). It’s not difficult to use: you give a text instruction on what to draw, and then the AI does its thing with the context you provide. Automation using different languages can produce different results, and there is the human factor: if you give stupid instructions, the result will be just as bad.

Allen’s work, Théâtre D’opéra Spatial, printed on canvas, won a prize in the digital art category. After posting about it on Discord, it went viral on Twitter in no time, with the comment, “Someone entered an art competition with an AI-generated piece and won the first prize. Yeah, that’s pretty f___ing sh___y.” But he didn’t use that platform and told the New York Times that he wouldn’t apologize because he won without breaking the rules. According to him, ethics are not in technology but the people. As he sees it, art is over because artificial intelligence won and humans lost. That sounds a bit provocative.

A Colorado Department of Agriculture spokesman said that because Allen disclosed the use of Midjourney in his submission, it was indeed done following the rules. Two judges did not know what Midjourney was at the time, but they would have rewarded Allen’s work regardless…

Source: PCGamer