One of Queensland's most prestigious art shows has come under fire for allowing AI-created works to be entered in this year's competition.
Entry conditions for the 2024 Brisbane Portrait Prize (BPP) give the green light to works that have been "completed in whole or in part by generative artificial intelligence (AI)".
It is the first time the popular art competition, which began in 2019 and boasts a top prize of $50,000, has allowed AI artworks to be considered.
The prize goes to ... who?
Australian art dealer Philip Bacon described the move as a "slippery slope", saying he was surprised AI was permitted outside of a digital category in the Queensland portrait prize.
"[The competition rules state] that you must meet … entry criteria, of which there are quite a lot about an original artwork, that it's got to be executed from life, they must have sat for you in person," he said.
"It kind of begs the question, just what part in this whole process a computer is going to play?
"I mean, is the computer going to be awarded the prize or is the artist?
"I think they're mutually exclusive and I think it probably needs to be tested a bit more than the entry criteria has allowed.
"I'm sure a lot of artists would be thinking the same thing — against whom are they being judged, against living artists trained or not trained, or a computer run from the cloud?"
Mr Bacon, who opened his gallery in Brisbane in 1974, said good portraits looked "into the soul of a subject".
"It's very hard to imagine an IBM or an Apple computer is able to do that," he said.
"Certainly, [computers] can manipulate colours and images and backgrounds but what about the soul of the person? I'm very uneasy about this."
Art is 'subjective'
Queensland painter Stephen Tiernan won the Performing Arts and Music category at the BPP in 2022.
He was less concerned with the use of AI in art competitions, saying there was still an "artistic process" involved with creating a work using computer-generated tools.
"It's very subjective to what the judge likes, so the judge might see it and dismiss it or they may actually like it," Mr Tiernan said.
"It's being contemporary and trying to acknowledge that it's out there.
"Photography, for example, way back would have been one of the things that [critics said] shouldn't be included — but obviously, photography is in there now and we see some amazing photographs that are part of the Brisbane Portrait Prize."
Photographer vs computer
Brisbane photographer Glenn Hunt has been a finalist in the competition several times and won the digital prize in 2020 for his portrait of boxer Jeff Horn.
He was critical of the move.
"It's like, what's the point? What's the point of having a competition where you're going up against the computer? It's not chess," he said.
Mr Hunt said AI art raised moral questions about where "data comes from and how it's used".
"People are making AI art using data from other photos that people have taken or other artwork that people have made, so it's kind of stealing in a way — but you can't attribute it to anyone because it's bits here and bits there.
"But morally, it's questionable."
A controversial issue
Australian Photographic Society (APS) Gregory McMillan said the use of AI was a controversial issue among photographers, and competitions run by the society did not permit it.
Last year, a category winner in the Sony World Photography Award, Boris Eldagsen from Germany, refused to accept an award for his work which was a "co-creation" using AI.
Mr McMillan said he would support the use of AI in portrait competitions if there was transparency around the work.
"Part of the challenge is what … you define as photography and the APS has been challenged by this over the last 18 months or so, as many organisations have," he said.
"There's a range of exhibitions and competitions out there that are in this new world of the broad definition of photography and … it would be almost churlish to say they can't exist, providing the rules are clear and people understand what they're entering into.
"I think where it's a challenge is where somebody has used artificial intelligence to create an image, and they present it as an image that they've taken and they've got the authorship over."
Entrants can't 'plug words into a computer'
In a statement, organisers said the BPP "has always and will continue to support individual creative processes and this will be highly valued, even in works using AI".
"The intention of allowing AI entries in this year's prize is not to supplant more traditional art forms, but to acknowledge that the definition of 'art' is not stagnant and will always grow and reflect societal change," the statement said.
"To clarify some misconceptions around our decision to allow AI artworks in this year's prize, those who enter a whole or in part AI artwork must provide a brief description of the AI tools and methodologies employed in the creation process, and BPP reserves the right to publish this information alongside the exhibited artwork to promote transparency."
The statement said judges would "assess how much weight" they placed on AI entries.
BPP organisers said entrants that used AI would still have to comply with other entry terms.
"What this means is that entrants cannot simply plug some words into a computer to generate an image because the result will not comply with our other terms of entry," the statement said.
"As technology continues to adapt and integrate into our society, it has already opened the door for artists with a disability to be included thanks to the use of assistive technology and we see the use of AI tools and methodologies as the next stage in this."