Jason M Allen

An award-winning work of digital art is not sitting well with the internet. While Allen is quite proud of his work, as it has not overstepped any of the rules of the contest, along with the fact that he spent over 80 hours going over 900 iterations, artists on Twitter are thinking otherwise. One user pointed out ... that it does not “bode well for the ‘human vs AI’ illustration discussion.”

Revolutions in art are nothing new, but this one, some think, may be terminal. "Art is dead Dude", Jason M Allen told the New York Times. Mr. Allen is the winner of the Colorado State Art Fair's competition in the category of "emerging digital artists". His winning entry "Théâtre D'opéra Spatial" was made using Midjourney, an artificial intelligence system that enables images to be created simply by inputting a few text prompts - for example, "an astronaut riding a horse". Many artists were furious, but Mr Allen was unmoved: "It's over. A.I. won. Humans lost", he told the paper.

Jason M. Allen was almost too nervous to enter his first art competition. Now, his award-winning image is sparking controversy about whether art can be generated by a computer, and what, exactly, it means to be an artist. “I’m fascinated by this imagery. I love it. And it think everyone should see it,” Allen, 39, told CNN Business in an interview on Friday.

After his win, Mr. Allen posted a photo of his prize work to the Midjourney Discord chat. It made its way to Twitter, where it sparked a furious backlash. “We’re watching the death of artistry unfold right before our eyes,” one Twitter user wrote. “This is so gross,” another wrote. “I can see how A.I. art can be beneficial, but claiming you’re an artist by generating one? Absolutely not.” Some artists defended Mr. Allen, saying that using A.I. to create a piece was no different from using Photoshop or other digital image-manipulation tools, and that human creativity is still required to come up with the right prompts to generate an award-winning piece.

Allen’s use of AI to render the work raised outrage over the award, with many saying it took away from the hard work humans invested to physically create genuine artworks. Jason M. Allen remains unfazed by the reception, saying: “I’m not going to apologize for it… I won and I didn’t break any rules.” Despite his win, Allen agrees with the sentiments of others that AI-generated art ought to be placed in a separate category moving forward. “I’m okay with that, there’s no problem with that,” said Allen. “But someone had to be first.”

Mr. Jason M. Allen entered his AI-generated artwork into Colorado State Fair’s art competition and won first place in the Digital Arts/Digitally Manipulated Photography category. The situation is generating fiery debate about AI and art on Twitter. He created 100s of images using it and after weeks of improvement process through minor alteration or revision, he chose the top three. He then upscaled them using GigaPixel AI, printed them on canvas, and submitted them to the competition in early August. But when Allen posted about the win on Midjourney Discord server and prompted lively discussions on Twitter, Reddit, and the Midjourney Discord server.

When Jason Allen submitted his “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial” into the Colorado State Fair’s fine arts competition last week, the sumptuous print was an immediate hit, beating 20 other artists in the “digitally manipulated photography” category to win the first-place blue ribbon and a $300 prize. What Allen had only hinted at, however, was that the artwork had been created in large part by an artificial-intelligence tool, Midjourney, that can generate realistic images at a user’s command. The portrait of three figures, dressed in flowing robes, staring out to a bright beyond, was so finely detailed the judges couldn’t tell. Allen’s piece offers a clear example of how rapidly AI-generated art has advanced. Trained on billions of internet images, the systems have decisively pushed the boundaries of what computers can create. But it has also sparked a massive debate over the meaning of art, with Allen facing accusations that he had been deceptive in beating out other human artists with something he asked a machine to create.