Nikon microscopy contest strips AI winner Dr. Ning Xu after scientists spot fakes

Guess

What direct evidence proved the video came from AI?

Fake cells, real red flags

Dr. Ning Xu's winning entry showed the beating motion of cilia — hair-like structures in the respiratory tract of a child with primary ciliary dyskinesia, a rare disease ¹. The video was submitted to Nikon's 16th annual Small World in Motion contest, which accepts movies and time-lapse shots taken through microscopes .

But members of the scientific community quickly raised alarms ¹. An associate professor at the University of Florida noticed that some structures appeared to "pop in and out of existence" while the cilia themselves seemed to materialize from nothing, which is impossible in real cellular biology . These kinds of inconsistencies are well-known telltale signs that a video has been produced by AI image generators .

Then PhD student Ian Donovan at UT Southwestern Medical Center found something more direct: a watermark in the source image that indicated it had been created by an AI tool ¹. Two former judges of the competition also independently questioned whether the clip was legitimate .

Xu's response and Nikon's verdict

In a LinkedIn post that was later deleted, Xu acknowledged that he had used AI, but said it was only applied during post-processing to help visualize features in reconstructed grayscale images from super-resolution optical imaging ¹. He insisted the AI was not used to generate the video itself, nor the cilia or their movement .

Xu also maintained that he had not broken the contest's rules, arguing that enhancing the visibility of microscopic structures is standard practice and commonly allowed ¹. However, several scientists noted that his explanation did not account for the physical impossibilities visible in the footage . They suggested the concerns could have been settled if Xu had released the original RAW grayscale video for independent review .

Nikon ultimately concluded that Xu had violated the competition's rules and stripped him of the title ¹. The first-place prize was instead awarded to Nguyen Nam Nhat of Vietnam for a video featuring a tiny roundworm and a single-celled organism .

Wider pattern of AI in contests

This is not the first time AI-generated work has caused disruption in visual competitions. A Midjourney image won a category at Colorado State Fair's annual art contest in 2022 ¹. An AI photo took first place in a 2023 contest hosted by Australian retailer digiDirect . In 2023, an artist won a category at the Sony World Photography Awards but declined the prize because his image was obviously AI-generated . And in 2024, an unapologetic AI entrant who won a digital art competition complained when others began stealing his work but could not copyright it .

Following the controversy, Nikon stated it plans to revisit its rules and evaluation procedures for future competition entries ¹.

This story reports on a trend for information only. It is not advice or encouragement to do any of it.

Key facts

Nikon's Small World in Motion contest is a leading scientific microscopy competition open to movie and time-lapse entries made through microscopes
Dr. Ning Xu of Tsinghua University won in 2026 with a video of cilia in a child's airways before his title was revoked
Scientists spotted AI signs including structures popping in and out of existence and a watermark visible in the source image
Nikon found Xu violated competition rules and awarded first place to Nguyen Nam Nhat of Vietnam instead
Nikon said it will revise its rules and evaluation procedures for future entries