CATS held a contest for local artists to design new passes. AI won.

CHARLOTTE — Artists in Charlotte are calling foul after a design chosen by the Charlotte Area Transit System for next year’s monthly passes turned out to be created by artificial intelligence.

CATS has been using local art on its passes for several years now, and they put out a call to artists in North Carolina and South Carolina to submit their designs for next year’s monthly, weekly, and daily passes back in April.

The winners were just announced last week. The first-place prize went to a submission featuring four people and a light rail train, in front of the skyline.

In response to CATS’ post on X announcing the winner, several responses pointed out that the image was made by AI.

We uploaded the design to two separate services that can identify AI-generated images. Both services flagged the image as 99% likely being generated by AI, specifically the GPT-4 model.

CATS says they chose the winners based on the following criteria: does the design address the theme and promote multi-modal transportation in Charlotte in specific or general terms, is the design eye-catching and well-composed, and is text absent from the design.

But don’t blame the artist who submitted the image -- according to CATS, she didn’t do anything wrong.

“According to our current official contest rules, the submission meets the current requirements,” a spokesperson for CATS said to Channel 9 in a statement.

That means this year’s winner earned the $500 prize fair and square. But next year’s contest might be different.

“As AI is a new and evolving field, we will assess its implications and potential uses for future contest rules,” CATS told Channel 9.

The artist who submitted the winning photo shared a statement with Channel 9 confirming that she used AI to help create the image.

“The original file was submitted through Adobe Illustrator and it is vectorized. The vision, direction, and execution are entirely led by me,” she said. “I did use AI in my design process, and I would recommend any artist or designer out there to not let this tool stop you, but to embrace it. As a designer myself, I understand AI can seem scary at first, but the goal is to work alongside with it!”

The new passes will be available in January 2026.

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