After several people voiced concerns on Facebook about the potential use of AI in a poster contest hosted by the Larimer County Farmer’s Market, organizers went directly to the artists to get proof.
The market recently held a poster contest in honor of its 50th anniversary. Local artists were asked to create a poster that reflects on what makes the market special.
The call for artists stressed that submissions had to be “original artistic interpretations of the Farmer’s Market” and “artwork generated using Artificial Intelligence will not be accepted.”
Last month, the artwork was displayed at the market, and visitors voted on the winners. But when organizers announced the top three in late July, some locals on Facebook were convinced AI was used in some of the pieces.
One of the most contested posters was the first place winner, which depicts a produce stand beneath a mountainous landscape. The artist asked organizers to remain anonymous, so her name was not shared with KUNC News.
Some commenters remarked on the supposed awkward phrasing of “local fresh good” on the sign hanging from the stand and noted that the stand's posts were not centered on the structure.
“They are placed very unnaturally, and actually, there is one that's totally missing from it, in general,” Fort Collins resident Sean Fazzini said.
Another contested poster was made by Hailey Ventimiglia. The digital illustration portrays an intricate root design. Around it are depictions of people engaging at market booths, various vegetables growing up from the roots and scenes of Colorado's nature.
“Everything just screams AI to me,” Fazzini said of Ventimiglia's entry, which won second place. “A lot of those dark figures, they seem unnatural. Not to mention the tomatoes just blatantly coming out of a sunflower.”
Other people commented on the Facebook post – before it was removed by market organizers due to what they called "negative feedback" – that the text of Ventimiglia’s poster looked similar to the other contested poster. Some even said they were able to regenerate the same font using ChatGPT.
Market organizers soon responded with a statement on its Facebook page about the contest, writing in part, “[We] verified that none of the three winning entries were created using AI by reviewing detailed photos of the artistic process, including a carved linocut.”
Yet some community members were still upset, questioning why organizers withheld artists names and proof of their process.
“I think if you're going to hold a community art contest, it should be the community's right to see that proof,” Fazzini said. “If it's not (AI), great, you know, our foot's in our mouth. But at least they’d be transparent. But the fact that they haven't done that tells a different story to me.”
KUNC News reached out to market organizers about these community concerns, including the absence of the artists' names.
“That was an oversight on our part that those were not released in the original post,” Maggie Switzer with the Larimer County Farmer’s Market said. “After the original post received a lot of community feedback, the artists then requested to remain anonymous because they had seen a lot of that more negative feedback.”
But organizers said they took the AI investigation seriously. They started by running each piece through an online AI checker.
“We've learned (those checkers) kind of have their own flaws inherently as well, but we did run them through an online verification site,” Switzer said. “We went with the best one that we thought would do the best job.”
They also reached out to each of the winning artists to review their process. After their investigation, organizers said they stand behind the art that was submitted.
Switzer said the first place artist did show “clear evidence” of their original creation by bringing in the physical linocut. They shared a photo of it with KUNC News.
“The artist was very kind and gracious and came to our office, brought the physical drafts,” Switzer said. “We are inclined to believe this artist who also put a lot of time and effort into this piece.”
Switzer also connected with the Museum of Art Fort Collins to help verify the pieces. Museum officials were able to confirm that Ventimiglia used ProCreate, a computer program, to make her artwork and looked at the layers of her digital file.
“It always looked human made, I wasn't really concerned about that,” Josie Taylor, with the Museum of Art Fort Collins, said.
Taylor also agreed with Switzer and verified the physical linocut as real and human-made.
“We're an art museum, they were going in the art museum, so I wanted to make sure before I put AI art on display, because obviously that's important to me,” Taylor said. “It felt good to learn that it's not (AI), but I wish that I could more widespread, like, get that word out there.”
The museum had already offered to display all the art pieces for a limited time. After the online backlash, market and museum officials reached out to the winning artists to see how they wanted to proceed.
Ventimiglia decided to share her name but did not publicly share the digital file. The first place artist remained anonymous, but did share her physical linocut for people to see. Taylor is grateful the first place artist went that route.
“If I was an artist, my thinking would be, if I submit this, people call it AI, and I have this proof, this physical proof that could clear that, why wouldn't I let the community see it?” Taylor said.
Taylor has had a few people reach out to her with concerns about the posters, which she’s responded to one-on-one. She said she is happy to answer anyone else’s questions.
All of the artists’ posters are on display at the Museum of Art Fort Collins through August 16th. The exhibit is free of charge to the public.
