Section 01The Entry
Jason Allen, a game designer from Pueblo West, Colorado, spent more than 80 hours over several weeks using Midjourney to create art. He ran at minimum 624 text prompts and generated roughly 900 iterations before selecting his final images. He submitted three pieces to the Colorado State Fair’s Annual Fine Arts Competition under the name “Jason M. Allen via Midjourney” — the AI tool name was right there in his submission label.
The category: Digital Arts / Digitally-Manipulated Photography. On August 29, 2022, “Theatres D’Opera Spatial” — depicting a grand baroque opera house opening out to a cosmic vista — won first place. The prize: $300.
Section 02The Explosion
Allen posted his entries to the Midjourney Discord server before the official announcement. The screenshots went viral on Twitter. The reaction was immediate and incendiary. Artists declared it an act of war.
One widely-circulated post said: “We’re watching the death of artistry unfold right before our eyes.” Another compared it to “letting a robot race in the Olympics.” Artnet News headlined: “An A.I.-Generated Artwork Won First Prize at a Colorado State Fair. Human Artists Are Infuriated.”
Within 72 hours, the Washington Post, CNN, NPR, Smithsonian, Al Jazeera, and Slate had all covered it.
Section 03Allen Fires Back
Allen was unapologetic. He told the New York Times he was “on the right side of history.” He stressed the creative labor involved in the process and pushed back hard against the idea that he had simply pressed a button and claimed credit.
On the backlash, he suggested fear was the root cause: artists worried about being replaced. On the rules, he was blunt — he had listed the tool name in his submission. He had broken nothing.
He also said: “It’s not like you’re just smashing words together and winning competitions.” And on the hostility directed at him: “Maybe, ultimately, the hate and animosity is stemming from fear.” He added he would not apologize — he had won, and he hadn’t broken any rules.
Section 04The Judges’ Verdict
The judges later told the Pueblo Chieftain they had not known Allen used AI when they made their decision. Then they said something remarkable: even if they had known, they still would have awarded him first place. One judge reportedly compared the work to Renaissance-era paintings.
The Colorado State Fair, responding to the controversy, added a rule for 2023: all entrants must disclose if they used AI. Allen re-entered the 2023 fair with a new AI-assisted work called “Grand Finale.” It did not place.
Section 05The Copyright Battle
On September 21, 2022, Allen applied for copyright registration for “Theatres D’Opera Spatial.” The U.S. Copyright Office refused in December 2022. He appealed. On September 5, 2023, the USCO Review Board issued a final denial.
The Board found that Midjourney — not Allen — determined the traditional elements of authorship: composition, line, color, and form. Allen’s human contributions were deemed “de minimis.” He has continued pursuing a federal appeal. He said the denial had “crushed” him economically.
Reason: AI-generated elements constitute the dominant creative expression. Human contributions deemed de minimis. Midjourney, not the applicant, determined composition, line, and form. The work does not meet the threshold of human authorship required for copyright protection.
Section 06Legacy
The case became the defining moment for the AI art debate: Who is the author when an AI makes the choices? Every major art competition subsequently grappled with this question. Some banned AI entirely. Some created separate categories. Some required disclosure.
The broader art community began fighting back — through lawsuits against AI training data, through new authentication standards, through artist registries explicitly marking work as human-made. The argument Allen started in Pueblo, Colorado in August 2022 is still going.