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Nikon Instruments disqualified Ning Xu's winning entry in its Small World in Motion microscopy video competition after determining the submission involved generative AI. A contest spokesperson confirmed the disqualification to Gizmodo, citing the use of AI as the reason the entry was ruled ineligible.
Nikon disqualified Ning Xu's winning Small World in Motion video of cilia after an investigation found it violated competition rules regarding AI use, following researcher complaints about anomalies and apparent AI watermarks in source files. Nguyen Nam Nhat of Vietnam, whose video shows a roundworm and a single-celled organism, has been named the new winner, with other finalists moving up one place.
Nikon has stripped Dr Ning Xu of Tsinghua University of his Small World In Motion prize after ruling his winning video breached contest rules on generative AI. The video depicted cilia movement in a child with the respiratory condition PCD, but several scientists, including former judges, publicly questioned its authenticity. Nikon said the decision followed a re-evaluation of the footage and consultation with its judging panel, and does not reflect on Xu's professional standing.
Nikon has stripped Dr. Ning Xu's video of its first-place win in the Small World in Motion microscopy contest after determining it violated rules on generative AI use. The video had purported to show cilia movement in a child's airway affected by PCD, but Xu acknowledged using an AI-based post-processing method to generate the imagery. Nguyen Nam Nhat's entry now holds the top spot following the update.
Researcher Dr Ning Xu's winning entry in the Nikon Small World in Motion competition, depicting lung cilia movement, is under investigation after scientists flagged inconsistencies such as structures appearing and disappearing unnaturally. A watermark check using Google Gemini reportedly detected Google's SynthID marker, suggesting AI involvement in the footage. Nikon says it is reviewing technical documentation submitted by Xu, who has acknowledged using AI for post-processing but denies violating competition rules.
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.
Ning Xu, an optical engineer at the National University of Singapore, won Nikon's 2024 Small World in Motion competition for a video of cilia from a child with primary ciliary dyskinesia. Microscopy experts subsequently questioned the video on social media, saying the red, purple and blue structures shown beneath the cilia appear biologically implausible and may have been produced or altered using an AI tool. The competition's blog post on the winning entry did not describe or explain these colored structures.
Ning Xu, an optical engineer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, won Nikon's 2023 Small World in Motion competition with a super-resolution video capturing the abnormal beating of airway cilia in a child with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD). His entry topped 346 submissions from 40 countries in the contest, which is a video-focused offshoot of Nikon's long-running Small World Photomicrography Competition.