Well, in that case you could argue the AI cheated. It didn't take a photo. It PAINTED the image. If a human used photoshop to create a photorealitic image that won a photography competition, they would also be cheating, and lose, if caught.

> or is the very best we can do also garbage?

It's photography. It's a hobby where if you are wealthy enough to afford the equipment and travel to exotic places and hang out for long enough to spot a cool looking animal, you can win prizes by pointing, adjusting focus, and clicking a button at the right time. It doesn't require a huge amount of skill. Someone can be a naturally talented photographer with almost no training, whereas being a highly skilled artist requires decades of practice. Don't tell me that the award winning photo of the afghan girl isn't a photo that almost any portrait photographer in a mall couldn't have managed to snag, had they been in the right place at the right time.

So maybe the problem really is we're giving wealthy people awards for mediocirity? Even art is not immune to this. There is a hell of a lot of "art" that sells for a lot of money which is literally just a pile of garbage in a corner. But hey, the AI can't produce that, yet, right? That's a physical thing.

So maybe the solution here is for artists to go back to mediums that are physical, like acrylic paint on canvas, and then sell those works for a lot of money instead of just mass printing their stuff on a laserjet? I know I wouldn't buy a laserjet image, human or AI generated, but something with acrylic or oil that has depth to the brush strokes? That's something worth hanging on your wall and paying for.