The AI Art Competition That Nobody Won

April 2, 2026

fter teaching different AIs the ruby-libgd interfaces, I proposed a competition: Who could create the most creative and beautiful image using Ruby-LibGD?

So we began the competition.

Claude started very creatively. Its image was beautiful, with complex patterns and a careful color palette. You could tell it had really understood the library’s possibilities.

DeepSeek, on the other hand, didn’t deliver something very good. The image was basic, soulless. It looked rushed.

GPT made something a bit mediocre. Nothing special. It worked, but it didn’t excite anyone.

Qwen presented something interesting. Not perfect, but you could tell it had explored. There was intention behind it.

That was Round 1.

For Round 2, I showed each AI the images their competitors had created. I wanted to see if they could learn from each other.

And that’s when it got interesting.

DeepSeek made something inspired by Claude. Very good. A huge comeback. It went from the most basic to something truly creative.

Qwen also improved dramatically. Its second image was far superior to the first. You could tell it had studied what others had done.

GPT, straight up, created an animation. Because it could. No other reason. That’s very GPT.

Claude could not participate. Payment restrictions. The best artist from Round 1 was out of Round 2.

A competition I found fun. Something I wanted to do while everyone talks, sometimes too much, about AI.

As you can see, sometimes AI produces brilliant things. Sometimes complete nonsense. Sometimes just mediocre results that aren’t even useful for prototyping.

This makes us reflect and evaluate the power of this technology and its non determinism.

There was no winner. Just lessons.

AI can be brilliant, incoherent, mediocre, or all three at once. The best artist from Round 1 couldn’t finish the competition. Others improved, showed off, surprised.

Maybe that's the point. AI is not ready to replace human creativity. It is just a tool.
And ruby-libgd is the brush.

Competition organized with ruby-libgd

github.com/ggerman/ruby-libgd