Winner of Nikon microscopy photo contest faces criticism over AI usage

The organizers of a highly regarded scientific photography contest are reviewing this year’s winning entry following criticism over the use of AI.

Nikon has announced that it’s “carefully re-reviewing the information” provided by Ning Xu, whose short video of intricate cell movement won the annual Small World In Motion competition in September.

At the time, Xu was a researcher at Tsinghua University in China. He’s since joined National University of Singapore as a research fellow, according to Nikon .

In a post on LinkedIn on Saturday, Nikon said that, “Xu is respectfully complying and has provided detailed technical documentation outlining the microscopy equipment, imaging methods, and processing techniques used to create the source video.”

Nikon Small World/ Dr. Ning Xu

Astonishing footage of abnormal cell movement in lungs wins 2026 Nikon video microscopy prize

The video captures the abnormal beating of airway cilia — hairlike structures that protrude from cells within the human body — in a child living with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), a rare genetic disorder, Nikon said at the time the winner was revealed.

In mid-September, Nikon announced that the video, which was created using an advanced microscopic imaging tool, had won the 16th annual Nikon Small World in Motion competition.

Last week, the competition posted the video on LinkedIn, where it received a number of critical comments from other users.

Edward Phelps, an associate professor at the University of Florida, said there were “many serious problems with this video.” He said that some of the biological structures shown in the footage do not behave as expected. “The microscopy community deserves an explanation from Nikon,” Phelps added.

Ian Donovan, a PhD student at UT Southwestern Medical Center, wrote that the video has “an embedded SynthID watermark identifying synthetic/AI-generated content.”

Xu replied to some of the criticism on Nikon’s LinkedIn post, saying that “AI was not used to generate the experimental movie, the cilia, or their motion.”

“It was applied afterwards to the reconstructed grayscale data to distinguish and color structures with similar morphology,” he added.

“A more detailed description of the optical system and quantitative analysis of the ciliary motion are currently being prepared for publication, and we hope to make these available soon,” he said.

“For me, the important distinction is between using an image to make a scientific claim and using visualization to communicate the beauty of scientific data,” added Xu. “Both can have a place, as long as we are clear about which is which.”

CNN has contacted competition organizers for comment.

CNN has tried contacting Xu for comment directly and via the Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore.

备受推崇的科学摄影比赛的组织者正在审查今年的获奖作品，此前该作品因使用人工智能而受到批评。

尼康宣布正在“仔细重新审查”宁旭提供的信息，宁旭拍摄的关于复杂细胞运动的短视频在9月份赢得了年度“微观世界运动”比赛的冠军。

据尼康公司称，徐某当时是中国清华大学的研究员，之后他加入了新加坡国立大学担任研究员。

尼康周六在领英上发帖称，“徐某正在配合调查，并提供了详细的技术文档，概述了用于创建源视频的显微镜设备、成像方法和处理技术。”

尼康微观世界/徐宁博士

一段令人惊叹的肺部异常细胞运动视频荣获2026年尼康视频显微镜奖。

尼康在公布获奖者时表示，这段视频捕捉到了患有原发性纤毛运动障碍（PCD，一种罕见的遗传性疾病）的儿童气道纤毛（从人体细胞伸出的毛发状结构）的异常摆动。

9 月中旬，尼康宣布，这段使用先进的显微成像工具制作的视频赢得了第 16 届尼康“微观世界动态摄影大赛”的冠军。

上周，该比赛在领英上发布了这段视频，并收到了其他用户的一些批评评论。

佛罗里达大学副教授爱德华·菲尔普斯表示，这段视频存在“诸多严重问题”。他指出，视频中显示的某些生物结构并未表现出预期的行为。“显微镜界理应得到尼康公司的解释，”菲尔普斯补充道。

德克萨斯大学西南医学中心的博士生伊恩·多诺万写道，该视频“嵌入了 SynthID 水印，用于识别合成/人工智能生成的内容”。

徐在回应尼康LinkedIn帖子中的一些批评时表示，“人工智能并没有用于生成实验影片、纤毛或它们的运动。”

“之后，我们将该方法应用于重建的灰度数据，以区分和着色具有相似形态的结构，”他补充道。

他说：“我们正在准备发表对光学系统的更详细描述以及对纤毛运动的定量分析，希望很快就能与大家见面。”

徐补充道：“对我而言，重要的区别在于用图像来阐述科学观点和用可视化来传达科学数据的美感。两者各有其用，只要我们清楚它们各自的用途即可。”

CNN已联系比赛组织方征求意见。

CNN曾尝试直接联系徐某征求意见，也曾通过清华大学和新加坡国立大学联系徐某征求意见。