A State-Fair Art Winner Disclosed That He Had Used AI

1. Competition Submission

American artist Jason M. Allen generated a digital arts piece titled Théâtre D'opéra Spatial using the generative artificial intelligence model Midjourney. On August 29, 2022, the artwork won the Colorado State Fair annual fine art competition in the emerging artist division. The winning entry competed within the digital arts and digitally-manipulated photography category against eighteen images submitted by eleven participants. Allen submitted three total pieces to the fair and openly disclosed that he utilized the Midjourney model to create them.

The victory included a three-hundred-dollar cash prize for the creator.

2. Creation Process

To produce the final composite image, Allen executed at least six hundred twenty-four text prompts and iterative revisions within the Midjourney software. He subsequently edited the generated output using Adobe Photoshop to adjust visual elements and upscaled the resolution using a specialized tool called Gigapixel AI. Allen printed his final submissions on canvas for physical display at the exhibition hall. Two of the canvas prints were later sold to collectors for seven hundred fifty dollars each.

Category judges stated they were unaware the software used artificial intelligence.

3. Public Reaction

While fair attendees raised little initial contention, news of the award quickly spread across social media platforms and drew sharp criticism from human artists. Commentators debated the fairness of allowing algorithmically generated images to compete directly against traditional digital artworks created entirely by human hands. State officials compared the conceptual dispute to prior contemporary art controversies involving conceptual installations. In response to the backlash, the Colorado State Fair introduced rules requiring future participants to disclose AI usage.

Allen defended his entry by stating he broke no established rules.

4. Initial Copyright Application

On September 21, 2022, Allen submitted a formal application to the United States Copyright Office to register the winning image. During initial reviews, a copyright examiner requested that the registration exclude any features of the composite image generated by the Midjourney model. Allen declined this modification request and insisted on securing copyright protection for the full, unsegmented image. The agency subsequently issued a formal refusal in December 2022.

The refusal cited inseparable contributions from both human and machine.

5. Reconsideration Requests

Allen filed a first request for reconsideration in January 2023, arguing for legal protection of the composite work. In March of that year, he launched an online campaign and made his previous appeals publicly available to rally support. The copyright office maintained its refusal in June 2023, ruling that while minor edits made using Photoshop could be registered, the core portions created via Midjourney and Gigapixel AI had to be excluded. Allen filed a second request for reconsideration on July 12, 2023.

Legal arguments cited both existing case law and public policy reasons.

6. Final Determination

The Copyright Office Review Board rejected Allen’s second reconsideration request on September 5, 2023. Allen had declined to exclude the more-than-minimal AI-generated material from his claim. The board explained that he could submit a new application identifying and excluding that material while describing any human contributions for which he sought protection. The decision concerned the submitted registration claim.

Allen continued to contest the refusal rather than file that narrower claim.

7. Appeals and Industry Impact

Allen challenged the Copyright Office’s decision in federal court in September 2024. His complaint disputed the refusal to register the work as submitted. That proceeding followed the administrative reconsideration process; it did not reverse the fair’s earlier prize. The competition entry and the federal registration application had produced different decisions by different organizations.

The lawsuit concerned registration of the image, not the fair’s award.

8. Documented Outcome

The Copyright Office’s Review Board upheld the registration refusal in September 2023 after Allen declined to exclude AI-generated material from the claim. He filed a federal challenge in Colorado in September 2024. Public filings documented further summary-judgment arguments in early 2026. These were stages of the same dispute, distinct from the state fair’s decision to award the image a prize in 2022.

The prize, registration refusal and court challenge were separate decisions.

Sources

• Original narrative adaptation — CC BY-SA 4.0
• Wikipedia contributors — Théâtre D'opéra Spatial (CC BY-SA 4.0)