Elbląg Withdraws AI-Generated Mural Designs After Public Backlash

The Elbląg city government (Urząd Miasta Elbląg) had to backtrack on its plan to let internet users vote on a mural design marking the 780th anniversary of the city receiving municipal rights, after it turned out both proposed graphics had been created using artificial intelligence. Internet users tore the proposals apart, calling them kitsch and an embarrassment.

On Friday, the Elbląg city government posted two mural proposals on its social media profile intended to commemorate the 780th anniversary of the city receiving municipal rights. The winning design, to be chosen by an online public vote, was meant to go on the wall of a building on Teatralna Street. Both proposals had been generated using artificial intelligence, a fact the city government did not hide, publishing them with that description attached.

Wave of Backlash in Comments

The reaction from residents was immediate and unambiguously negative. Comments under the post included words like kitsch, nightmares, embarrassment, and the English term AI slop, an internet expression for shoddy, mass-produced AI content. Some commenters pointed out that a city with such a rich history and artistic community deserved better than an image clicked together in an image generator.

Neither the competition rules nor the announcement contained any ban on using generative artificial intelligence to create the design. This meant that, formally, nothing prevented the city from putting ready-made AI graphics up for a public vote, even though the public reception turned out to be devastating.

City Reverses Course

On Saturday, a day after the post went up, the city government announced a change of strategy. In an official statement it said it was thankful for all the votes and comments, and had therefore decided to end the ongoing vote and change the format for choosing the design.

We are thankful for all the votes and comments, and have therefore decided to end the ongoing vote and change the format for choosing the design. - Urząd Miasta Elbląg (Elbląg City Government)

Instead of choosing among ready-made AI proposals, the city invited residents to submit their own mural designs by email to dk@umelblag.pl. The submission deadline is September 14 at 9:00 am, and the final choice is again meant to belong to online voters, this time from among works created by people.

Not the First Case in Poland

Elbląg joins a growing list of Polish cities where AI-related murals have sparked public debate. In Gniezno, a competition for a mural on Farna Street was won by a work that many commenters said looked AI-generated, even though the rules explicitly required the design to be made personally by the participant without third-party assistance. The case ended with an online petition calling for the competition to be voided.

A similar dispute involved a mural commemorating Andrzej Szwalbe in Bydgoszcz, where a visual communication student publicly suggested the work might have been created by artificial intelligence rather than by the credited author. The artist denied this, and the matter was never resolved, though it sparked a debate about the need for clear rules on AI in publicly funded competitions.

What Polish Competitions Are Missing

The common thread in these cases is the absence of clear provisions on the use of generative artificial intelligence in the rules of municipal art competitions. City governments either make no provision for it at all, as in Elbląg's case, or introduce bans that prove difficult to enforce, as the Gniezno example showed.

For residents and local artists, the matter has a practical dimension: money from the city and regional (voivodeship) budgets, in Elbląg's case over 52,000 zloty combined, is meant to fund a work of public art that will stay with residents for years. There are growing calls for such funds to go to local artists rather than being spent to replace their work with an image generator.

The Elbląg case also shows that city governments are still learning how to respond to public pressure over AI. The quick reversal, made within a single day of the post going up, contrasts with the months-long disputes in Gniezno and Bydgoszcz, where authorities or contest organizers defended the results despite criticism.