Nikon revokes first prize in Small World in Motion video competition over AI use

By Jack Guy, CNN

(CNN) — The winner of a prestigious scientific photography competition has been disqualified after organizers concluded that his use of generative AI broke the rules.

Ning Xu was named the winner of the annual Nikon Small World in Motion competition in September, but his video received a number of critical comments from experts who questioned its use of AI.

Nikon launched an investigation, and announced its conclusion in a statement Friday.

“After thoroughly re-evaluating the video and supporting materials and consulting with members of our judging panel, Nikon has determined that the winning video did not comply with the competition rules regarding generative AI,” the statement reads, adding that the competition rankings have been adjusted.

“This decision is based solely on the submitted video’s eligibility under the rules outlined for this competition. It should not be interpreted as a judgment of the entrant’s professional reputation, scientific contributions, or intent,” it said.

Nikon also said it would revisit its rules and evaluation procedures for the annual competition in future.

The new winner is a video showing a tiny roundworm and a single-celled Dileptus, a kind of single-celled microorganism, by Vietnamese researcher Nguyen Nam Nhat.

Xu’s video captures the abnormal beating of airway cilia — hairlike structures that protrude from cells within the human body — in a child living with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), a rare genetic disorder.

When Nikon posted the video on LinkedIn, it attracted criticism from scientists such as Edward Phelps, an associate professor at the University of Florida, who said there were “many serious problems with this video.”

Phelps said that some of the biological structures shown in the footage do not behave as expected. “The microscopy community deserves an explanation from Nikon,” Phelps added.

In response, in a series of comments on LinkedIn, Xu acknowledged that he had used AI.

“AI was not used to generate the experimental movie, the cilia, or their motion,” he wrote.

“It was applied afterwards to the reconstructed grayscale data to distinguish and color structures with similar morphology,” he added.

CNN has reached out to Xu, who now works at the National University of Singapore as a research fellow, for further comment.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.