Using AI software, contestants face off in front of a crowd to produce the best images in under 60 seconds, with their image prompts (including typos!) shown live to in-person audiences.
Artist and interface developer Sebastian Schmieg came up with the initial concept, with head-to-head challenges such as recreating an image, or generating a portrait of an opponent in the style of their favourite artist.
The format was largely inspired by rap battles, with audiences choosing the winner of each round by showing their support.
After a tour of the competition in Europe, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne hosted a prompt battle evening on Friday, with audience member Lucas beating seven hopefuls to win the title of best prompt engineer.
The winner gets glory but, not only that, skilled image generation using text prompts could be an in-demand job of the future.
"It's a big new name for a job maybe, for people who are really good at writing these prompts," Schmieg said.
Sometimes artists and photographers have what it takes to come out on top, but other times slam poets, stock photographers, or internet nerds emerge triumphant, he said.
Schmieg has been responding to AI developments for about a decade through his artworks, and said while AI might make some things more efficient, there's a great deal to think about.
"We can be quite critical, because all the energy that goes into training these systems is insane, and I'm wondering if it's better to invest some of that money into other things such as healthcare," he said.
There are also widespread concerns about privacy, copyright, and the ownership of data.
"Nobody has been asked if their data can be put into the datasets, they just do it, and you still need to pay for that service even though it's your data that's been used to create it," Schmieg said.
For anyone who wants to hone their skills at image prompting, the artist's Prompt Battle Training Station has been installed at the execute_photography show at RMIT Gallery until May 4 as part of the Photo 2024 festival in Melbourne.
The exhibition looks at the transformation of photography into a software output, with photos becoming mutable images that can be manipulated in many ways; leaving the humble film camera a long way behind.
While the prompt battle concept might leave people thinking that humans will make a contest out of anything, Schmieg says artificial intelligence was actually born out of competition, with different platforms racing for dominance.
"There is a lot of aggression around AI, companies trying to create the best AI, the race between continents for the best AI, China versus Europe versus USA," he said.
A prompt battle is a way of openly addressing the aggression in the room, according to Schmieg, and like the rush to develop AI at all costs, perhaps it doesn't have to be this way.
Schmieg created the prompt battle event with his colleague Florian A. Schmidt and former students.
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