The winner of a prestigious photography competition has turned down the award after admitting that his entry was created using AI.

German artist Boris Eldagsen's winning entry, Pseudomnesia: The Electrician, was awarded a Sony World Photography Award last week in the creative open category.

Eldagsen subsequently said he had entered photo to find out if such competitions were prepared for AI images to enter.

He concluded that AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this as they are “different entities”.

“AI is not photography,” he said. “Therefore, I will not accept this award.”

The news comes as a further reminder of how advanced AI systems are becoming in creating images and related media.

Twitter users were fooled recently when a user began posting AI-generated images of former president Donald Trump being arrested, along with images showing him mopping floors in an orange prisoner’s jumpsuit.

In March, Elon Musk-funded Future of Life Institute issued a letter calling for a pause on AI development.

The open letter garnered over a 1,000 signatures from notable figures including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Emma Bluemke, Centre for the Governance of AI, PhD Engineering, University of Oxford.

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