The Australian portrait prize has made a groundbreaking decision to allow entries that are entirely generated by AI.
The Brisbane Portrait Prize has allowed AI-generated artwork entries, stating that art should reflect societal change. The competition accepts artwork that is entirely completed and owned by the entrant. A spokesperson for the prize said that the use of AI tools and methodologies is the next stage in including artists with disabilities. The competition would determine ownership of the AI-generated work based on the processes used and the terms of the AI program. There is still uncertainty about how much human contribution is enough for a human to become an author of an AI-assisted artwork under Australian copyright law.
“An example of someone determining whole ownership of the content might be seen in an artist using an AI tool to produce an entirely brand-new artwork using elements of several of their own original artworks, with all original designs belonging solely to the artist,” the spokesperson said.
“We recognise that AI is an evolving space and that our laws are often playing catch up to technological advancements.”
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Dr TJ Thomson, a senior lecturer at RMIT’s school of media and communication, said that “creating an image through a camera and imagining one through keyword prompting is a completely different experience that draws on largely different skills”.
“Some knowledge of photography principles and equipment can inform one’s prompting, but having camera-produced and AI-generated imagery compete wouldn’t be fair.”
There have been various competitions that have had to deal with entries created using generative AI applications, which have become more widely available in the past year. The National Photographic Portrait Prize for 2024, organized by the National Portrait Gallery, permits the use of generative AI tools in the development of photographic work entered, but it does not allow wholly AI-generated images. However, there are strict conditions that must be met, including the requirement to provide details about the tools used and how they were used. If the AI prompt includes names, images, work or creative styles of others, express consent must be obtained.
Thomson, a spokesperson for the National Portrait Gallery, acknowledged that this was a complex space with many unanswered questions, but predicted that other competitions would follow suit. The World Press Photography competition, for example, announced in November that it would exclude AI-generated entries from its open format following “honest and thoughtful feedback,” stating that the ban was “in line with our long-standing values of accuracy and trustworthiness.”
German artist Boris Eldagsen declined the prize for the creative open category at the Sony World Photography Awards last year after submitting an AI-generated photo of two women “as a cheeky monkey” to test if competitions were prepared for AI images.
