Tiny image sparks big backlash in Nikon photo contest

Nikon’s Small World In Motion contest is back in the awkward place no organiser wants: a winning entry is now being checked after other scientists said it may have been made with AI. The contest has run for 15 years and celebrates photos and video taken through powerful microscopes, which means the stakes are bigger than the $3,000 prize attached to the win.

The disputed entry is a short video from Dr Ning Xu, a researcher at Tsinghua University in China. It was presented as footage of cilia — tiny hair-like structures — moving inside the airways of a child with a rare disease. Xu did not answer the BBC’s request for comment, but he has posted online denying that he broke the contest rules.

In a response on LinkedIn, Xu said AI was not used to generate the experimental movie, the cilia, or their motion. He did say AI was used “to distinguish and visualize features in the reconstructed grayscale images,” which is where the argument is now hanging. The video is brightly coloured, which is allowed in microscopy competitions, though that sort of colourisation is usually done by hand with stains and dyes on the sample itself.

The complaints from scientists are more specific than a general vibes-based scepticism. Edward Phelps, an associate professor at Florida University, said some structures seemed to “pop in and out of existence” and that the cilia “appear from nowhere.” Ian Donovan, a PhD student at UT Southwestern Medical Centre, said the source image appeared to contain a watermark that pointed to AI generation. Two former judges also said they had concerns about whether the image was real.

Nikon says Xu is “respectfully complying” with its investigation and has provided extra technical documents. The company also said it does not currently see any rule violations, but promised an update soon. Dr Patrick Hickey, who came fifth in the 2026 contest, said the issue goes beyond money: the point of the award is the recognition, especially for scientists trying to show the public what they see under the microscope.