Contest-Winning Microscope Video Is Full of AI Confabulations, Scientists Say
Nikon is re-reviewing the winning entry of the Small World in Motion contest after scientists accused the creator of using AI to fabricate biological structures. Critics noted that the colored features in the video do not correspond to real anatomy and detected SynthID watermarks indicating AI generation. The creator claims the underlying cilia motion is real but used neural networks for post-processing and visualization, which violates the contest's rules against generative AI.
- ▪Nikon announced it is carefully re-reviewing the submission by National University of Singapore engineer Ning Xu following public criticism.
- ▪Scientists pointed out that the purple, blue, and red structures in the video are biologically implausible and do not match known cellular anatomy.
- ▪Users identified a SynthID watermark in the video, which is a marker used by AI firms to indicate generated content.
- ▪Xu stated that the original cilia motion was captured via microscopy, but AI was used to distinguish and colorize the grayscale data for visualization.
- ▪The contest rules explicitly prohibited the use of generative AI to produce images, leading to questions about the validity of the award.
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| Publication time | Fri, 02 Oct 2026 23:00:33 +0000 |
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Japanese optics company Nikon has stated it is “carefully re-reviewing” information submitted by National University of Singapore optical engineer Ning Xu after commenters accused him of using AI in his winning entry to the 16th annual Small World in Motion contest.cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"92b7b46b-43ed-4e0e-b21b-2c999302d9d7","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.gizmodo.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"2000820652","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"tech","SECTION":"artificial-intelligence","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"artificial-intelligence","TAGS":"","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); Small World in Motion bills itself as celebrating the beauty of light microscopy.
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