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Real photo beats AI images in human vs robot competition

Mar 14, 2023 by Alex Baker Leave a Comment

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Real photo beats AI images in human vs robot competition

If you were losing sleep over the imminent threat of robots taking your creative work, then you can sleep peacefully. At least for a little while longer. A real life human photographer won a competition recently, which pitted humans made photographs against AI generated images.

The competition invited photographers and AI image creators to enter the competition with a $1000 prize for the overall winner. Each image was submitted to a panel of judges without them knowing how it was created.

Real photo beats AI images in human vs robot competition

Costelo with his winning photograph

Earlier in February, the Sydney based AI-image agency Absolutely AI won an online photography competition run by digiDirect. They entered under a false name, and pretended that it was a real drone photograph. Afterwards, the agency claimed gleefully to have fooled the judges, and that AI was now indiscernible from traditional photography.

Obviously that stirred up quite some consternation over the interwebs. So digiDirect launched the man versus robot competition in response.

The winning entry was by photographer Keith Costelo, who submitted a humanoid subject, shot and edited in his own signature style.

“While technology continues to advance and push the boundaries of what is possible in photography, there is still something truly special and irreplaceable about the human eye and the creative choices we make,” said Costelo to News.com.au.

Indeed, the entire panel of judges were esteemed photographers and ambassadors for photography’s biggest brands: Jason Boland for Nikon, Russel Ord for Fujifilm, Mark Galer for Sony, Chris Bray for Lumix, and James Simmons for Canon. Perhaps though, it was remiss not to include any AI ‘artists’ on the judging panel for balance? At this point in time it’s still somewhat easy for a trained eye to tell the difference between a real photo and an AI generated image, no matter how photo realistic it is.

“Winning this contest has only strengthened my belief in the power of human artistry and the importance of preserving the authenticity and emotional depth that can only be captured through the lens of a human photographer,” says Costello.

Jaimie Sissons, one of the people behind Absolutely AI commented saying that he felt that the future of the arts industries looked “terrifying”, saying that he felt AI generated images were of far higher quality than man-made imagery.

“I look back at the work that I have created, and if I’m being honest, it all looks so basic,” Sissons says. Perhaps, but I also feel that that is an objective commentary on the quality of Sissons’ own work, not on human artists as a whole.

This debate will rage on for some time now I believe. This battle between man and machine may have been won, however, the war still rages on.

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Filed Under: news Tagged With: AI, photography contest

About Alex Baker

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

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Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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