Nikon microscopic video competition winner disqualified for using generative AI

Nikon says the video that originally won first place in its Small World in Motion contest “did not comply with the competition rules regarding generative AI.” BBC reports that the original first place video from Dr. Ning Xu claimed to show “tiny, hair-like structures called cilia moving in the airway of a child with the respiratory condition PCD.” Nikon said last week that it was reviewing the video following skepticism online about 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 distinguish 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 first place, according to the contest’s updated rankings. Following the incident, Nikon says it plans to “revisit rules and evaluation procedures for future competition entries.” It also noted in its statement on the contest that the decision to disqualify Dr. Xu’s video “should not be interpreted as a judgment of the entrant’s professional reputation, scientific contributions, or intent.”