Nikon Small World in Motion Winning Video May Be AI

Nikon announced the winners of their annual Small World in Motion competition last week. The winning video was from Dr. Ning Xu of Tsinghua University in Beijing. The video shows "abnormal beating of airway cilia from a child with Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD), a genetic disorder affecting respiratory function." The above video shows the top five videos from the competition.

However, as soon as the winner was announced, other scientists started crying foul. The cilia seem to be the wrong size, and some structures seem to disappear at times. One researcher ran the video through Google Gemini and found an invisible watermark that may indicate the video was generated by artificial intelligence. Dr. Xu responded to the criticism, but since then, his comments at LinkedIn and his entire profile have been deleted. Nikon says it is re-reviewing the video and supplemental information about it. Read about the kerfluffle in the Small World in Motion winner's seat at PetaPixel.  (via Damn Interesting)