06/03/2023 BNB Chain hackathon winner accuses Binance of stealing AI-powered NFTs idea

BNB Chain hackathon winner accuses Binance of stealing AI-powered NFTs idea

Crypto exchange Binance has been accused of “blatantly” copying the winner of the BNB Chain hackathon after launching Bicasso — an AI-basednonfungible token (NFT)creation tool. Binance allegedly ripped off a tool created by Chatcasso just two months after awarding them first prize in a BNB Chain hackathon held in Seoul from Dec. 17–19, 2022.

On March 1, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhaoannouncedthe launch of Bicasso, an artificial intelligence (AI) product that can be used to “turn your creative visions into NFTs with AI.” However, community member “ggoma” believes Binance copied and promoted the Chatcasso project as its own.

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Binance, on the other hand, dismissed the accusations of plagiarism. Speaking to Cointelegraph, a Binance spokesperson said Bicasso is an experimental project built by a small team at Binance as a test, and that NFTs and AI are common concepts worked on by many industry players.

Chatcasso won the first prize in the BNB Chain hackathon for creating an AI-powered tool for creating NFTs, receiving $5,000 in Binance USD (BUSD).

Chatcasso won first prize at the December 2022 BNB Chain hackathon in Seoul. Source: Twitter

However, ggoma was shocked to see Binance launch a similar platform within two months, stating:

“A big company like Binance copying everything down to the name? It’s not only unethical, but it’s also confusing for users. The names are so similar that it’s hard to tell them apart.”

In addition, ggoma shared screenshots of the two projects to showcase the similarities between the user interface and capabilities.

723b5ce2-9cc6-4660-92a1-9948bba940ac.pngScreenshots showing similarities betweenChatcasso and Bicasso platforms. Source: Twitter

Binance maintains that the similarities do not imply theft of ideas. The exchange’s spokesperson told Cointelegraph:

“Despite the similarities, after conducting an internal review, we’re confident that Bicasso was designed and developed independently more than two weeks before the BNB hackathon.”

Moreover, Binance and BNB Chain operate separately, and the Binance development team is not involved in BNB Chain hackathons, said the spokesperson.

Binance clarified to Cointelegraph that the Bicasso name was inspired by the OpenAI tool “Dall-E,” referring to the artist Salvador Dali, adding, “our team loved this concept.”

The entire episode has made ggoma skeptical of entering hackathons in the future, as he wondered if a market leader would rebrand innovative ideas at a later stage. “We hope that Binance realizes the impact of their actions and takes steps to right their wrongs,” ggoma added while warning builders that “there are companies out there who will try to take advantage of your hard work.”

Binance’s Bicasso became an instant hit among NFT investors as the AI-powered NFT generatorrecorded 10,000 mints in 2.5 hours.

CZ recently warned investors that a photoshopped image with misinformation was circulating on WeChat, a social media platform in China.

CZ further highlighted the importance of dismissing fear, uncertainty and doubt, advising investors to ignore false allegations that surface occasionally.

Arts

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bnb-chain-hackathon-winner-accuses-binance-of-stealing-ai-powered-nfts-idea/amp

Interesting NFTs
Clock
one thousand four hundred forty one
#3959
By OthersideDeployer
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.
#88320
By OthersideDeployer
Genesis
José Delbo sent me his striking pencil sketch and powerful inked work, which I then interpreted in oil on canvas. I wanted to create a very painterly piece with obvious brush marks etc, but I was also aiming for a nostalgic feel, a kind of 1980’s superhero comic book look, the kind I grew up with. My goal with this animation was to try to recreate, in part, the creative process that both artists went through with the visual information I had. I was able to showcase my painting process more accurately as I could take photographs of my progress throughout. Consecutive images could then be layered like brush strokes over José’s drawing to create the impression that this was one continuous artwork from pencil, to ink, to completed painting. The representation of the line sketch at the beginning, then pencil/ink and lastly the paint layers being applied demonstrate both artists’ struggle for the right lines, tone, form, and colour until the work is finally completed. As the oil was still wet with each photograph the glare of my studio lights can be seen in the brush strokes. Eventually, the figure emerges and as it does, our hero comes to life, looking directly at the viewer -- but is he grimacing in approval or disgust? We will never know for sure as just before he can say anything, white paint is brushed across the canvas entirely and the process begins again. Only the bat is quick enough to escape.