Théâtre D'opéra Spatial: real or AI?

What we found

This picture looks like a grand painting of a scene in a vast, theatre-like hall. Jason M. Allen made it with Midjourney, an AI image tool, then edited it in Photoshop and enlarged it with another AI program, Gigapixel AI. In August 2022 it won first place in the digital arts category for emerging artists at the Colorado State Fair, which set off a worldwide argument about AI in art. Allen has always said openly that he used Midjourney. He later told the US Copyright Office that he typed and changed his text prompts at least 624 times to reach the first version. In September 2023 the Office's Review Board refused to register the image, because so much of it was made by the machine rather than a person. A prize or a gallery wall does not tell you how a picture was made: look for the maker's own account.

Key facts

Original source

Jason M. Allen using Midjourney (2022), via Wikimedia Commons

First published

Not recorded

Earlier appearances

Not recorded

The claim you saw

No caption recorded

Signs of AI

Yes. Shown below, but not what decided it

The evidence, strongest first

What we couldn’t establish

Exactly how it was made, and with which prompts, beyond what the sources above say. If you know more, tell us.