Nikon disqualified the winner of its Small World in Motion competition after finding that Ning Xu of Tsinghua University violated rules by using AI in his video of respiratory cilia. Vietnameses researcher Nguyen Nam Nhat became the new winner with a video of a roundworm and single-celled organism, while other finalists advanced in ranking.
Nikon disqualified the first-place winner of its Small World in Motion microscopic video competition after Dr. Ning Xu admitted to using generative AI for post-processing, violating contest rules. The video depicting cilia in a child's airway was removed and replaced by a new winner. Nikon plans to revisit its competition rules and evaluation procedures.