Nikon Contest Winner Doubted: 'Not Consistent With Nature'

A video of tiny structures is causing an outsize headache for Nikon. The optics company is reviewing the winning entry of its "Small World In Motion" microscopy contest, featuring photos and videos captured using high-powered microscopes, after scientists alleged the clip was at least partly AI-made, in violation of the rules, reports the BBC. The short video, submitted by Dr. Ning Xu of China's Tsinghua University and billed as cilia moving in a sick child's airway, shows brightly colored hairlike structures (check out part of the imagery here). Critics, however, say some features "pop in and out of existence" and appear unnaturally large; one researcher claimed to spot an AI watermark.

"When you start looking at the scales of the movie and some of the details of it, it was quite clear to the community ... that some of these features just are not consistent with nature," says Leicester University's Robert Hirst, who's used microscopy to diagnose the disorder of Xu's child patient, per The Scientist. Xu has acknowledged using AI to enhance grayscale images but insists the underlying footage and motion are genuine. Nikon says it currently sees no rule-breaking, is probing further with more technical documents from Xu, and promises an update soon, per the BBC. More here on how Xu says he created his video.