Kitakata, Fukushima Prefecture, has stopped publishing winning entries in a children's soy sauce poster contest and canceled its awards ceremony after social media users accused some of the drawings of being made with generative AI. The city had posted the winning works, along with the children's names, on its website in early October.
The contest, run to promote soy sauce consumption, drew 148 entries. The city took the works down on October 16 after children were subjected to defamatory comments, and the awards ceremony was called off.
The contest had no rule restricting the use of generative AI. Kitakata said it chose the winners on the judgment that each child had drawn the work, whether or not AI was involved.
When an accusation becomes defamation
Lawyer Yura Abe, writing for the legal news site Bengoshi JP, examined whether telling others a work was made with generative AI can carry legal responsibility. Public posts that lower a person's social standing on social media can constitute criminal defamation or insult, she wrote.
Defamation under Article 230, Paragraph 1 of the Penal Code applies when someone publicly points to specific facts that damage a person's reputation. It carries a penalty of up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 500,000 yen.
Insult under Article 231 applies when someone publicly insults another person without citing specific facts. The penalty is up to one year in prison, a fine of up to 300,000 yen, detention or a minor fine.
Abe said neither charge follows automatically from accusing a work of being AI-made. The circumstances of how the work was published and what the post actually said both have to be examined.
She gave an example: posting that a child broke the rules by entering an AI-made picture and won fraudulently, when that is not true, could constitute defamation. Remarks such as "it looks like AI was used" or "the composition seems AI-like" are impressions or questions, and do not necessarily state specific facts.
Where AI use was never banned, simply pointing out that it was used may not lower the artist's standing at all. Defamation is unlikely to be found in either case, she wrote.
Insult can still apply, Abe said. Even where defamation does not, publicly calling a child "cowardly" or saying "you have no talent" over AI use may constitute insult.