In 2023, German artist Boris Eldagsen entered an image titled “The Electrician,” from his series “Pseudomnesia,” into the open competition of the Sony World Photography Awards and won the creative category. The picture is a haunting black-and-white portrait of two women in a 1940s style. It was not a photograph at all - Eldagsen had generated it with an AI image tool.
After being named the winner, Eldagsen publicly refused the prize. In his own statement he wrote: “Thank you for selecting my image and making this a historic moment, as it is the first AI generated image to win in a prestigious international PHOTOGRAPHY competition.” He explained his motive bluntly: “I applied as a cheeky monkey, to find out, if the competitions are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not.” His core argument was that “AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography.” He said he hoped his refusal would speed up that debate and suggested the prize money go to a photography festival in Ukraine.
The organizers said they had been aware AI was involved in the image’s creation before announcing him as winner, but felt his handling of the disclosure was misleading.
Why business readers should care: the episode is a clean test case for any competition, marketplace, or platform that accepts user submissions - existing rules and categories often have no answer for AI-generated work, and the gap can turn a prize into a scandal.