I just want to disclose that I went that I went through this thread and sent smerits to each member who participated, and mostly based on 1miau's recommendation - however, I have trouble with my own abilities to figure out if the submissions were following the rules - especially in regards to not being AI generated, and so I am less excited about having had participated in sending smerits in this contest as compared with other past contests..
Definitely, AI cheating shouldn't be rewarded.
I'm not an AI checking expert and I didn't check each picture by a checking tool but most AI pictures are still somehow easy to spot. Of course, I agree: AI is improving very quickly.
That's why I only gave 1 Merit away because even if a participant tried AI cheating, 1 Merit wouldn't be a huge reward for AI cheating.
And of course, AI cheaters will get busted sooner or later.
One of our judges actually did a scan of all the art entries and came back with a result of zero AI generated arts.
Nice to know, such effort is highly appreciated to have check all submissions if abuse via KI has happened.
And nice to see your local board is very honest.