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Oviedo council sends mural contest back to public art board, bars AI‑generated designs
Summary
Council directed the public art board to reopen a mural design competition and to prohibit AI‑generated designs after members expressed concern some top submissions used AI; council allowed multiple artist submissions and required copyright declarations in the artist agreement.
Oviedo — Council members agreed to send the proposed mural design award back to the public art board and directed staff to reopen the call with a clear prohibition on AI‑generated designs.
Counsel told the council that the decision is discretionary and that waivers of purchasing policies were included in the resolution because "time is of the essence." Council and staff discussed that several of the 15 submissions raised questions about whether AI had been used to generate the concepts. Counsel recommended sending the item back to the public art board with explicit direction about AI use rather than approving designs with unresolved concerns.
"If you want to send it back to the public art board, I would recommend sending it back with direction to go back out and try again, and also if you want to give any direction on hey, don't allow AI," counsel said during the discussion.
Council members debated whether the call's prompt — the city's centennial theme ("Oviedo past, present, and future") — may have been too limiting and whether some applicants simply did not follow the prompt. After discussion, council reached consensus that submitted designs should be hand‑crafted by the artist and not generated by AI, while still allowing artists to submit multiple entries and to include links to prior mural work.
Staff noted the artist agreement already requires a declaration that the artist owns the copyright and will transfer it to the city; council asked staff to ensure the reopened call and agreement explicitly address AI and attribution for design elements.
The council did not approve any design at the meeting; instead it directed the public art board to reopen the competition with the council's guidance and to return with revised submissions.
