Nikon Microphotography Competition AI Work Disqualified

Nikon's investigation determined that the winning video by Tsinghua's Ning Xu used AI, in violation of the competition rules, and disqualified it; Vietnam's Nguyen Nam Nhat becomes the new Nikon Small World in Motion winner with a video of microscopic nematodes and single-celled organisms.

The original first-place entry in Nikon's Small World in Motion microscopy video competition was disqualified for violating rules related to generative AI. The author, Dr. Ning Xu, admitted on LinkedIn to using an unsupervised neural network method for AI-assisted post-processing. The video has been removed, Nguyen Nam Nhat's entry has been moved up to first place, and Nikon said it will re-examine future competition rules and judging processes.