Summary
Tokina, a camera lens manufacturer, cancelled the first prize in its 2025 annual photography competition after a Reddit community accused the winning image of being AI-generated. The company announced it would replace the winner’s work with a photograph by Lee Nuttall and promised to review its judging process. The controversy centered on a winning image showing fishermen pulling in nets at sunset, which contained a SynthID watermark indicating it was created or significantly edited using Google’s AI tools. While some users suggested the watermark might be added automatically for routine edits, others noted a video of the same scene filmed by the photographer showed a different time of day, suggesting AI was used to replace the sky. Tokina stated the winning entry was disqualified for violating competition rules and expressed regret over the incident.