Are there ghosts in our machines? Well, of course not, but a recent viral Twitter thread might have you believing there is something sinister lurking behind your computer screen, just waiting to be unleashed. On Sept. 6, the internet was introduced to "Loab," an apparently AI-generated "woman." The internet promptly began calling her "the first cryptid of latent space," "creepy," a "demon" and "a queer icon." There's a lot going on here, so let's explain. By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

Dustin was the Teen Tech Category Winner of the Bytes and Pieces Writing Contest. When people think of the greatest painters or artists of all time, they may think of legends such as Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, or Vincent van Gogh. No one would think of or say the name Jason Allen. Jason Allen is a video game designer who submitted his digital art piece Théâtre D'opéra Spatial to the Colorado State Fair's digital arts competition and won first place for his piece. However, this piece was not "his."

A lack of balance between those poles (in whichever direction) produces different kinds of issues in adults. I have written extensively about those matters, but that is not the topic of this article. Let's get back to the artists. Many great artists have the following thing in common. They are able to navigate this depth elevator in an agile and flexible way.

Damien Hirst cut a cow and calf each lengthwise into two halves and displayed them in four separate baths of formaldehyde in clear display tanks. The title of the creation, "Mother and Child Divided," is a pun. The cow and calf were cut in two and were displayed physically separated. The macabre bifurcated bovine creation won top place in the 1995 Turner Prize art competition. This simple example reveals that, like judging the palatability of raw oysters, ranking the quality of art is highly subjective.

Where will we draw the line between human-generated art and AI-generated art? If so, should we bestow the acclaimed title of artisan upon said AI? Let's unpack things and see where the world stands on these mind-bending concerns. A crucial undercurrent has to do with AI Ethics and how we as a society perceive and want to make use of AI. For my ongoing and extensive coverage of AI Ethics and Ethical AI, see the link here and the link here, just to name a few. News stories this past few days have made AI and art an extremely hot topic. You see, the whole conundrum about Artificial Intelligence and art was recently thrust into the public eye when an AI "artbot" seemingly won an art contest. The headlines regarding this matter have ranged from fervent outrage to a sense of sorrowful acquiescence that it was only a matter of time before AI would prevail in the creative field of artistry. Some even claim that we've already seen AI comeuppance in art and that there is nothing new in this latest occurrence other than it managed to touch a nerve on social media. Amid all the heated debate in general, there are a lot of facts about this latest incident that muddy the waters and tend to undercut the shallow headlines and vitriolic tweets that the story has generated. It might be useful to take a moment and calmly consider the actual specifics, which I will be doing throughout this discussion. Meanwhile, one perhaps beneficial outcome of the reported story is that AI Ethics managed to suddenly get some long overdue recognition in the media at large. Whenever an AI-themed man-bites-dog story hits the airwaves and goes viral on social media, public opinions start to weigh in. We will examine the various qualms and complaints expressed in the public discourse about this brewing AI Ethics riddle. First, let's lay out the facts of the deemed newsworthy snowball that ultimately started a cantankerous snowfall avalanche. The Colorado State Fair is where the competition in this case took place. The Fair is an annual event that has a hearty 150-year-old tradition initially focused on livestock. An eventual expansion of activities included the inclusion of a fine arts contest.

A game designer has sparked controversy after submitting an image created by an AI text-to-image generator to a state art competition and taking home first prize. Jason Allen entered the artwork titled "Theatre d'Opera Spatial" in the "Digital Arts / Digitally-Manipulated Photography" category of the Colorado State Fair fine arts competition but created the piece using a popular text-to-image AI generator named Midjourney. A Twitter post describing Allen's win went viral earlier this week (and was first covered by Vice). The post elicited a strong response, with many users claiming that Allen had been deceptive in submitting the piece, particularly as most of the public is unaware of how text-to-image AI generators work. Allen, though, has defended his actions.

TL;DR -- Someone entered an art competition with an AI-generated piece and won the first prize.Yeah that's pretty… https://t.co/SFtD8Oas7M It's almost like artists are smart people and can tell you exactly how this kind of thing will devalue what we do and you should listen to us when we point out the problems. We're watching the death of artistry unfold right before our eyes -- if creative jobs aren't safe from machines, then even high-skilled jobs are in danger of becoming obsolete What will we have then? I've met plenty of "idea guys" that just *wish* they could draw. In some aspects I like what one could use AI images for, but I refuse to accept it as "art" in the same vien as something created directly by a person.

After posting on online about his win at a state fair's art contest using AI-generated art, a man is facing backlash about the victory. Artist Jason Allen used an artificial intelligence program called Midjourney to make the winning art piece called "Théâtre D'opéra Spatial," that won first place for digital art in the Colorado State Fair's fine arts competition. Midjourney generates graphics from words in a text box. In a Discord post that was shared on Twitter, Allen, under the username Sincarnate, wrote about making the image using Midjourney and winning first place in digital arts category at the state fair's fine arts competition. "I have been exploring a special prompt that I will be publishing at a later date, I have created 100s of images using it, and after many weeks of fine tuning and curating my gens, I chose my top 3 and had them printed on canvas after upscaling with Gigapixel A.I.," the post said.