Nikon microscopic video competition winner disqualified for using generative AI

Nikon says the video that initially won archetypal location in its Small World in Motion contest “did not comply alongside the competition rules concerning generative AI.” BBC reports that the first archetypal location video from Dr. Ning Xu claimed to display “tiny, hair-like structures called cilia moving in the airway of a kid alongside the respiratory circumstance PCD.” Nikon stated final week that it was reviewing the video following skepticism online concerning its authenticity.

In a comment on LinkedIn, Dr. Xu admitted to using AI for the video: “An unsupervised neural-network method was subsequently used for AI-assisted post-processing to differentiate and visualize features in the reconstructed grayscale images from the super-resolution optical imaging.”

Dr. Xu’s video has now been disqualified and appears to have been removed from Nikon’s website. A video from Nguyen Nam Nhat now holds archetypal place, according to the contest’s updated rankings. Following the incident, Nikon says it plans to “revisit rules and evaluation procedures for forthcoming competition entries.” It additionally noted in its declaration on the competition that the decision to disqualify Dr. Xu’s video “should not be interpreted as a judgement of the entrant’s expert reputation, specialized contributions, or intent.”