AI-generated art piece disqualified by SC State Fair after being awarded cash prize

An art piece awarded as part of the competitions at this year’s S.C. State Fair has been disqualified due to the use of artificial intelligence.

The piece, “Country Woman” by Blackville artist Terrance Washington, had been awarded Best of Division - Amateur , which comes with a $300 cash prize. Organizers for the fair, which takes place in Columbia, declined to comment on the piece’s disqualification beyond a statement sent out to the artists who submitted to this year’s competitions. That statement doesn’t specify whether the cash prize had already been awarded or if the fair will try to get it back.

“It has been brought to our attention that there was a violation of the art contest rules in relation to Digital Media and the use of Artificial Intelligence,” the fair’s statement reads. “Contest rules clearly state in Divisions 107-Professional and 607- Amateur that pieces ‘Must NOT be created using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).’ ”

Washington couldn’t immediately be reached for comment about his piece’s disqualification.

“We hope to work to educate our exhibitors on the rules related to digital art and also to work with our judges to prevent this from occurring in the future,” the fair’s statement continues. “While we believe this was an unintentional mistake, we encourage all competitive exhibit participants to closely read the rules in place and to act with integrity. This year, the SCSF had over 1600 pieces registered for the art show. 1276 unique pieces of art are currently on display. Of those pieces, 20 are entered in digital art. After being informed there was a piece of art generated with AI on display, the artwork was pulled. We are working to ensure that this does not happen again. However, we also must rely on the integrity of our artists and trust they are following the contest rules.”

Local artists told The State that the piece was pulled after they reached out to the fair, pointing to a July 2023 post on X (formerly Twitter) from Washington that includes “Country Girl” and three other pieces with the caption: “I did my first A.I. Art, it’s based on Artist Thriving in a rural communities [sic].”

Artists who responded to the situation online were pointed in their criticism.

“The work of living artists all across the internet is scraped and compiled to create these images without the artists’ knowledge, consent, or compensation,” West Columbia illustrator, printmake rand photographer Colton Giles posted to Facebook . “This combined with the use of GenAI in place of commercial illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, and many other professional artists is a more pressing issue than the gray-area conversations around what may or may not be real art. GenAI imagery is theft, and that is not a gray area.”

West Columbia artist Sean McGuinness, who creates Godzilla-centered mash-up art via the brand Neo Monster Island and who submitted multiple pieces to the fair’s digital art competition, told The State he worries about the event’s ability to detect AI submissions moving forward.

“I don’t think the State Fair is really prepared for this,” he said. “Think about who’s judging these pieces, a bunch of older folk who don’t even know how to recognize digital art. The only reason this got brought up is because they were able to find out the forum where the guy admitted it was AI.”