Hey, I used Bing without any trouble. If you can be more explicit with the issue you had (except the AI controversy) then I could be of some help.

After reading your post, I realized we approached this infamous contest quite differently. I understand your concerns regarding AI. But I have a slightly different views about this technology.

As a writer, I don't use AI at all except for Grammarly to fix typos. Since, I'm not a digital artist, I find it convenient to use AI images sometimes with my text but I make sure to not take any credit for those. If I'm creating something in digital art space (let's say I take part in a digital art contest) then I will ofcourse not use AI but my natural skills.

Regarding the issue of generative art and plagiarism - I have researched a lot about it. I have come to the conclusion that if it comes under plagiarism then everything comes under plagiarism because every word, every idea is a derivative of previous work in some way. AI does train its models with datasets but it uses machine learning at the core to form new images.

People who are furious with AI are those who have lost their jobs. Those people aren't only artists, even writers are suffering too. It's entirely a different debate. For years, machines have been replacing humans and they will continue to do so.

Mailmen lost their jobs to Emails.
Travel agents are losing their jobs to apps like Tripadvisor.
Factory workers lose their jobs whenever an automated machinery comes in.

Since this contest, specifically asked to generate AI image then I think there's no harm in doing so. The host just gave us a prompt, it was upto us how to use it. Since an AI generated image wouldn't have been enough, I wrote a story along to make sure it shows good amount of natural intelligence and to stay within the scope of this community.