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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
Joe Hinchliffe

Artists boycotted this portrait prize over AI entries. Now they’re back to take them on

Wiradyuri artist Birrunga sits on a red chair in his studio, surrounded by paintings
Birrunga, the Wiradjuri artist and founder of Birrunga Gallery in Queensland. The Brisbane Portrait prize made headlines two years ago when artists and photographers, including Birrunga, boycotted the prize when it allowed AI generated work to compete. Photograph: Rhett Wyman/The Guardian

Poised above the lady in the red dress is a claw. Its metallic fingers grasp to pluck its prize from a jumble of other women while she looks dreamily upward, as if to say “Who, me?”

The woman in the red dress is Australian comedian Alice Fraser, as photographed on stage. The other women – generic superheroes and 1950s housewives – were created using the generative AI software Krea.

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