The 'Flamingo' Photo That Won AI Award Gets Disqualified For Being Real

Artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm and how. Social media is flooded with AI-generated images that can leave anyone stunned with their precision. Celebrating this special technology, an AI competition was organised where an image of a flamingo was declared the winner before the story took an interesting turn. The image was later disqualified from the competition after the jury panel discovered that the photo was an actual click and not generated using AI. The picture was submitted by photographer Miles Astray to the prestigious 1839 Awards which received entries from across the globe.

According to The Guardian, Miles Ashtray submitted a real photograph of a Flamingo in the 1839 Award competition instead of an AI-generated image. The striking photo called ‘Flamingone’ convinced a panel of judges to award Astray third place in the “AI-generated” category of the contest before it was disqualified.

The report suggests that Astray submitted a real picture because he wanted to break the rules. He was concerned that the AI-generated images were taking over the work and efforts done by real photographers. “It occurred to me that I could twist this story inside down and upside out the way only a human could and would, by submitting a real photo into an AI competition,” Astray said.

Talking about his image, Flamingone, Astray added that he won the competition because his picture was surreal and an unimaginable shot. He said that it was completely natural and a difficult click to capture. He was elated with the fact that his photo became his first real photo to win an AI award.

Miles Ashtray wanted the world to understand how AI images can deceive anyone.

He said, “I was hoping that these industry professionals and also the audience would find that this jab at AI and its ethical implications outweighs the ethical implications of deceiving the viewer, which, of course, is ironic because that is what AI does.”