(ABC 6 News) – The countdown to Rochesterfest has begun, with six finalists announced on Friday for the annual button design contest.

The contest is a way to spotlight local artists, and the winning design that judges feel best fits that year’s theme is used on all of the festival’s promotional materials and advertising.

However, this year, the contest is drawing controversy over what some recognized as two potential AI images selected among the finalists.

“It was kinda disheartening to see Rochesterfest appear to allow AI on their art, especially when a lot of the artists spent hours on their designs,” said local Rochester artist Beni Benyei.

Benyei submitted their own design into the contest two years ago, which they said was a smooth process and didn’t notice at the time any AI submissions.

As someone with a degree in graphic design who struggled to turn their passion for art into a career due to the few opportunities available for artists in the community, Benyei is disappointed to see possible AI images taking away opportunities from small local artists who put in the hard work.

“For us small artists or like graphic designers, it’s these little small opportunities that help us pay our bills,” said Benyei.

The potential use of AI particularly stings to some artists who submitted their own original designs because this year the winner will receive a $300 prize.

“These folks work hard at their craft, they put in the time and dedication. I think it means a little bit more this year because the arts community fought very hard for this contest to cater to professional artists and to have a monetary stipend,” Amy Garretson, a local art advocate and self-described amateur artist.

Critics of the finalist selections say use of AI in the contest breaks the rule that all designs must be original work.

“In the art world, if AI has been used in a submission, there are usually very clear rules around that and that the artist must identify their use of artificial intelligence,” said Garretson.

Garretson explains that AI can be used in many different ways in art, and is sometimes a helpful tool for artists, but in the worst case scenario, AI generates images through scraping a data set of existing artwork online from other artists.

“In original artworks you can very much see the artist’s hand and in these AI generated images, it’s easy to tell that something is not quite right,” said Garretson.

Rochesterfest Executive Director Randy Stocker says no one involved in selecting the finalists suspected any use of AI in the 32 designs that were submitted until after the announcement was made and people began speaking out.

“I appreciate the feedback, I really do, we’re always trying to improve the process, but we’re not professional artists, not even close,” said Stocker.

This time around the selection process was a bit different than in previous years, as ten individuals outside of the Rochesterfest board members also had a say in selecting finalists, and will also choose this year’s winner. Stocker says two of those outside people were also local artists.

“I even talked to a couple artists in town, and say ‘how do you, how do you know if a design comes in from, you know, created by AI?’ Cause I’m not an art expert and my 22 board members not art experts, so we didn’t know,” said Stocker.

However, many others in the local art community spotted the signs of potential AI right away.

“Some of the signs I noticed, a lot of glitches on the image that an artist, I don’t think, would have missed, and then some of them had double wording,” said Benyei.

“That is says ignite your spark twice, so that shows me that the person who submitted it really failed to proofread the work, and probably did not go in and edit or amend the work, or really put their artist touch to the work,” said Garretson.

Stocker says he was told the use of AI generated images can only be speculated and not 100% proven, but if any experts say otherwise, they should give him a call.

“If there is a way to determine next year whether a submission is 100% AI, I’ll gladly rule it out, gladly,” said Stocker.

Benyei says they’d like to see the committee re-vote on this year’s finalists, but understands if that isn’t feasible and changes have to wait until next year.

Stocker says there are no plans to reconsider the existing finalists, and the winner will be chosen from the current six designs and announced on April 1.

Festival officials welcome all the feedback that’s been pouring in on how to improve the contest for next year.

Benyei believes the use of AI should be explicitly banned in the rules moving forward. They also hope future judges will study up on common signs of AI images, and suggests future submissions be run through an AI checking software.

Garretson suggests if AI is not directly prohibited in the future, there should at least be clear guidelines on disclosing how AI was used to create the work.