Page 17 - Cape-Camera-October-2024

Cape Camera October 2024

Be aware: AI could get you banned for life!

Major international organisations are taking harsh sanctions against people who enter

AI-generated items in their images entered in their competitions and salons

Some local photographers have been asking that artifi- for a minimum of 3 years to life, they state. In all sections
cial intelligence (AI) images be allowed in a special cat- of an exhibition, images must originate as photographs
egory in club competitions. They might want to think made by the entrant.
twice when they hear about the harsh sanctions the The Canadian Association for Photographic Art
major global photographic organisations impose on (CAPA) names several reasons why images created by
anybody found guilty of using AI in photographic com- AI are not acceptable in photographic competitions in
petitions … for example, banning them for life! an extensive AI document on its website. It also men-
These organisations are also very clear why they find it tions that in the United States, several AI firms are being
unacceptable to enter AI images in competitions: they sued for copyright infringement and the matters are be-
label it as plagiarism, infringement of copyright and fore the courts.
fraudulent practices, which are deceptive and unethical. CAPA does not allow AI images in its competitions main-
PSSA also stipulates that all elements in an image must ly because AI image generators do not compensate the
be photographed by the author. original photographer or artists and infringes intellec-

International Federation of Photographic Art tual property rights.
(FIAP) bans all pictures created by artificial intelligence The majority of photographic societies and associations
(AI) from all its competitions and salons. This umbrella require that an entrant submitting an image into their
photographic organisation, represented in 94 coun- competition must hold the copyright for their submitted
tries (including South Africa), is very clear that anybody image, they say. Participants submitting AI-generative im-
found guilty of entering an AI generated image will be ages engage in fraudulent practices by presenting ineligi-
banned for life. They also ask that this is made clear in ble images in photographic competitions, which is both
all brochures of all competitions or salons with FIAP pa- deceptive and unethical.
tronage. Another reason is that accepting AI generated images
The reason is that FIAP takes the protection of the copy- in a photographic competition would create an unfair
right of photographers very seriously. AI, by definition, advantage, as AI algorithms are capable of producing im-
uses somebody else’s photograph (or elements from it) ages at a faster rate or with more precision than human
without permission to create an image — or add some- photographers.
thing to your image. FIAP therefore stresses that “all parts
of the image have to be photographed by the author who is Policing AI images and DQs
holding the copyright of all works submitted.” AI is obviously not easy to police. An article on the CAPA
website gives guidelines for detecting AI, but it could
The Photographic Society of America (PSA) not still be confusing.
only agrees with FIAP, but also refers to all work that
did not originate as an image in the photographer’s Therefore, when a club or country enters a FIAP com-
camera as plagiarism, for which they express zero tol- petition the organisation now requests that the person
erance. Any person submitting an AI generated image (in responsible for collecting the submitted files must en-
whole or in part) shall be prohibited from PSA activities sure that they contain the original EXIF To p19

Cape Town Photographic Society 17