Nikon re-evaluates Small World contest winner over AI manipulation claims
Nikon is reviewing the winning video in its Small World In Motion microscopy contest after scientists alleged it was partly AI-generated. The clip, submitted by Dr Ning Xu of Tsinghua University, purports to show cilia moving in a child's airway, but critics flagged structures appearing and vanishing oddly and a possible AI-generation watermark on the source image. Xu has denied breaking contest rules, acknowledging AI was used only to enhance grayscale images, not to generate the cilia or their motion.