It wasn't that long ago that an AI image won first place in an art contest at the Colorado State Fair.

But now, the turntables are spinning right around as a human just took third place in an AI art contest.

The 1839 Art Contest is a photography contest with a panel of judges made up of photo experts from The New York Times, Christie's, and Getty Images. The contest added an AI category in the hopes of separating out submissions using computer-generated art from real photographs.

For the real photographs, the contest:

... reserved the right to request proof of the image not being generated by AI as well as for proof of ownership of the original files.

Unfortunately, they forgot to make the same requirements of the AI entries; in part because who would be silly enough to submit a real photograph into an AI contest? And secondly, current copyright law only covers human-created work.

No one can own AI-generated files.

But sure enough, a modern-day John Henry named Miles Astray entered into the contest a real photograph he took of a flamingo. His fake AI photo won third place among the judges and took home the people's choice award.

He might have gotten away with it too, if not for his victory lap over AI on social media:

Nature still outdoes the machine and you helped prove it! My picture 'F L A M I N G O N E' won the People's Vote and a Jury Award in the artificial intelligence category of 1839 Awards - the twist: the photo of a flamingo whose head is apparently missing, is not AI-generated.

Both his awards in the competition have been stripped for misleading the judges.

But they've been replaced with immediate internet fame, which is for all intents and purposes even better than artsy, fartsy judges who are easily duped.

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