Arabic version: فنانون يعودون إلى جدل الذكاء الاصطناعي في جائزة بريزبن للبورتريه

According to The Guardian, several artists who boycotted the Brisbane Portrait Prize after it accepted AI-generated work in 2024 have returned as finalists, seeking to confront the debate through their own entries.

The prize had allowed declared AI-generated art to compete, including for its $50,000 Lord Mayor’s prize. The decision prompted criticism and a boycott by former winners and artists, including Wiradyuri artist Birrunga, who also withdrew his gallery’s represented artists from the competition in 2024 and the following year.

Birrunga and five First Nations artists represented by his Queensland gallery have now chosen to “reinsert ourselves”. Their self-portraits draw on what they call “ancestral integrity”, which Birrunga says cannot be replaced by software. Gunggari and Kabi Kabi painter Kane Brunjes’ Ancestral Integrity and Kamilaroi artist Elysia Love-Anderson’s Reflections are among the finalists.

Jackie Ryan is also a finalist with The Catch, a portrait of comedian Alice Fraser that uses generative AI software Krea alongside Ryan’s photograph. Of the 49 works in the main competition, Ryan’s is the only entry to declare generative AI use. Photographer Glenn Hunt, another 2024 boycott participant, is a finalist with a portrait of Dean Clifford, who lives with epidermolysis bullosa.

Brisbane Portrait Prize director Anna Reynolds said generative AI entries must not infringe copyright, a rule introduced to regulate the emerging technology. Winners will be announced on Friday, before the exhibition opens to the public on Saturday.