Audit log

Every state-changing event for Hallucinations: moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot taken at submission time, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key.

1. #1publishby system:backfill

   2026-05-28 16:13:00Z
   Score: ? → ? (no score change)
   anchoranchored

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   ●mainnet-betaslot 422,754,284

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   5UgQ8JKXcDAD…sbBWHMvmcopyexplorer ↗

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   4GvG1uYWhduc…veJEu23ecopysha256 → base58

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   {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"b93ad10c-2491-4ff0-81e9-9fa54b08c66f","kind":"publish","page_slug":"hallucinations","published_at":"2026-05-28T16:13:00.238Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Hallucinations","sections":[{"content":"Machine Hallucinations is Refik Anadol's primary NFT project series, originating from an ongoing AI research initiative that began in 2016 during Anadol's residency at Google's Artists and Machine Intelligence program. The series uses generative adversarial networks (GANs) trained on large image datasets — including over 300 million photographs of New York City for the NYC edition, and over two million NASA images for the Space: Metaverse edition — to produce continuously evolving AI data paintings and immersive installations. NFTs from the series are minted as ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, with the primary Space: Metaverse collection deployed at smart contract address 0x7948F7fF1158B338a898e80ce8b1c3C964a80cec. The NYC collection (1,000 unique items) is deployed at 0xf95b19c4a2e8564dfd26a594992d9a6aa984ed47. A Mars Landscapes sub-collection (218 tokens) was deployed at 0xE604D1bcD6Ac7A03461e8e56500D60D476f1E569.","heading":"Project Overview","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Machine Hallucinations NFT Collections by Refik Anadol — OpenSea","type":"other","url":"https://opensea.io/collection/refik-anadol"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Machine Hallucinations — NYC by Refik Anadol — OpenSea","type":"other","url":"https://opensea.io/collection/machine-hallucinations-nyc-by-refik-anadol"},{"credibility":2,"name":"NFT Culture: Refik Anadol's Machine Hallucinations — A Deep Dive into the Ethereal NYC","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.nftculture.com/nft-news/refik-anadols-machine-hallucinations-a-deep-dive-into-the-ethereal-nyc/"}]},{"content":"The project is the work of Refik Anadol (born November 7, 1985, Istanbul, Turkey), a Turkish-American media artist and co-founder of Refik Anadol Studio and the Dataland museum. Anadol holds a BA and MFA from Istanbul Bilgi University and a second MFA in Design Media Arts from UCLA (2014). He is a recognized figure in the AI art space, having been named to Time 100 Impact Award in 2025 and awarded the Lumen Prize Gold Award in 2019. His studio, based in the Frogtown neighborhood of Los Angeles, operates as a multidisciplinary collective of artists, architects, and data scientists. No regulatory actions, SEC filings, or legal proceedings involving Anadol or his studio have been identified in available public records.","heading":"Creator Background","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Refik Anadol — Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refik_Anadol"},{"credibility":2,"name":"About Refik Anadol — refikanadol.com","type":"official","url":"https://refikanadol.com/refik-anadol/"}]},{"content":"The Machine Hallucinations series has generated substantial documented auction revenue. The flagship lot, Machine Hallucinations – Space: Metaverse (2021), sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong on October 4, 2021, for HKD 18,325,000 (approximately $2.35 million USD), exceeding its presale estimate. The broader Space: Metaverse collection raised approximately $5 million in total at that auction. A subsequent lot, Machine Hallucinations – Space, Chapter II: Mars (Infinite AI Data Painting), sold at Sotheby's in 2025 for $900,000, with the buyer paying in cryptocurrency. At Christie's, the Living Architecture: Casa Batlló NFT fetched $1.38 million and a Messi collaboration sold for $1.87 million in 2025. The artist has stated that his total NFT sales have exceeded $30 million across approximately 11,000 tokens. As of mid-2026, the Machine Hallucinations — NYC OpenSea collection reports a floor price of approximately 0.257 ETH with 1,000 items and 349 owners. The primary Space collection reports a floor of approximately 0.2 ETH with 841 items and 332 owners. Secondary market daily trading volumes for both collections were under $600 USD as of the time of investigation, indicating significantly reduced liquidity relative to peak 2021-2022 NFT market conditions.","heading":"Sales History and Market Performance","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Machine Hallucinations — Space: Metaverse — Sotheby's 2021 Auction","type":"other","url":"https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/machine-hallucinations-space-metaverse"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Refik Anadol — Machine Hallucinations, Space, Chapter II: Mars — Sotheby's 2025","type":"other","url":"https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2025/origins/machine-hallucinations-mars-infinite-ai-data"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Refik Anadol Among Top Sellers at Sotheby's $17.3 Million Saudi Debut — Artnet News","type":"news_article","url":"https://news.artnet.com/market/work-of-the-week-refik-anadol-machine-hallucinations-2608627"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Digital artist Refik Anadol's NFT sales exceed $30 million — HTX News","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.htx.com/feed/news/807081/"}]},{"content":"The Machine Hallucinations project is notable for its integration with major cultural institutions. In late 2022, Anadol's related work 'Unsupervised — Machine Hallucinations — MoMA' was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, attracting over three million visitors and running for nearly a year after extensions. In October 2023, MoMA acquired 'Unsupervised' as the first NFT in its permanent collection. The commercial arrangement involved MoMA receiving 17% of primary NFT sales and 5% of secondary market royalties from NFTs minted on Feral File, the platform used to distribute associated digital works. Critics have noted that this revenue-sharing arrangement creates a potential conflict of interest: MoMA's institutional endorsement of Anadol's work simultaneously promotes the commercial value of associated NFTs from which MoMA profits. Art critics including those writing in ARTnews have alleged that 'an outsider looking at the arrangement might accuse MoMA of trading its credibility for crypto.' No regulatory body has taken action related to this arrangement, and the disclosures around the revenue sharing were reported in established art and crypto press. The arrangement is unusual in the traditional museum context but does not appear to constitute securities fraud or financial misconduct under any documented regulatory framework.","heading":"Institutional Relationships and Conflicts of Interest","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Modern Dream: How Refik Anadol Is Using Machine Learning and NFTs to Interpret MoMA's Collection — MoMA Magazine","type":"official","url":"https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/658"},{"credibility":1,"name":"MoMA Acquires Refik Anadol's 'Unsupervised,' Other Digital Artworks — ARTnews","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/moma-acquires-refik-anadol-unsupervised-digital-art-nfts-1234681622/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"An Inside Look at How Refik Anadol and Digital Art Were Finally Welcomed into MoMA — ARTnews","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/how-refik-anadol-digital-art-entered-moma-ny-art-world-1234707079/"}]},{"content":"The project has attracted substantive art-critical scrutiny, though no allegations of financial fraud have been substantiated in verifiable sources. New York critic Jerry Saltz dismissed the MoMA 'Unsupervised' installation as 'crowd-pleasing, like-generating mediocrity.' ArtCritic's Hervé Lancelin characterized Anadol's practice as producing 'empty cathedrals where code replaces incense,' arguing that works like Machine Hallucinations amount to 'recycling images in a giant digital blender' without meaningful artistic substance. Lancelin also raised concerns about Anadol's extensive corporate partnerships with Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Google, characterizing the works as 'tech demos disguised as art.' Critics writing in e-flux have questioned whether the terminology Anadol uses — describing AI outputs as 'dreams' or 'hallucinations' — mystifies what is technically a computational image-synthesis process, potentially inflating perceived artistic value. These critiques are of artistic and conceptual merit rather than financial fraud. Supporters, including Lloyd Wise writing in Artforum, described the work as 'spellbinding,' and the MoMA 'Unsupervised' show became one of the museum's most visited exhibitions.","heading":"Critical Reception and Artistic Integrity Concerns","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"An Extremely Intelligent Lava Lamp: Refik Anadol's AI Art Extravaganza at MoMA — Artnet News","type":"news_article","url":"https://news.artnet.com/art-world/refik-anadol-unsupervised-moma-2242329"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Refik Anadol: The Illusionist of Empty Data — ArtCritic","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.artcritic.com/en/refik-anadol-the-illusionist-of-empty-data/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Refik Anadol's 'Unsupervised' — Criticism — e-flux","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.e-flux.com/criticism/527236/refik-anadol-s-unsupervised"}]},{"content":"As with most NFT collections from the 2021-2022 peak cycle, the Machine Hallucinations series has experienced significant secondary market contraction. As of mid-2026, the NYC collection (floor ~0.257 ETH, 1,000 items, 349 owners) and the primary Space collection (floor ~0.2 ETH, 841 items, 332 owners) are trading at very low volume — under $600 USD in 24-hour volume across collections. This represents a substantial decline from peak valuations. The owner-to-supply ratio (approximately 35% for both collections) indicates that the majority of items are concentrated among a relatively small number of holders, which is typical but notable for liquidity assessment. No rug pull mechanics, mint authority exploits, or honeypot conditions have been identified or reported for these Ethereum ERC-721 contracts. Buyers of NFTs from this series should be aware of broad NFT market illiquidity conditions in 2025-2026.","heading":"Liquidity and NFT Market Risk","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Machine Hallucinations NYC Collection — OpenSea","type":"on_chain","url":"https://opensea.io/collection/machine-hallucinations-nyc-by-refik-anadol"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Machine Hallucinations Space Collection — OpenSea","type":"on_chain","url":"https://opensea.io/collection/refik-anadol"}]},{"content":"No regulatory actions, SEC or CFTC enforcement proceedings, court filings, OFAC sanctions, or DOJ investigations involving Refik Anadol, Refik Anadol Studio, or the Machine Hallucinations NFT project have been identified in available public records as of May 2026. The project does not appear in any documented scam registries, ChainAbuse reports, or established fraud databases. The Ethereum smart contracts associated with the project have been deployed and traded without documented exploit incidents. The project is not associated with any known wash trading schemes, though as with all NFT collections, independent verification of historical sale authenticity is not guaranteed by public records alone.","heading":"Regulatory and Legal Status","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Refik Anadol — Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refik_Anadol"},{"credibility":2,"name":"From MoMA to Sotheby's: How Refik Anadol Scaled the AI Art Market — MutualArt","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.mutualart.com/Article/From-MoMA-to-Sothebys--How-Refik-Anadol-/A5DC46A85202F6F3"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Refik Anadol — Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refik_Anadol"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Machine Hallucinations — Space: Metaverse — Sotheby's 2021","type":"other","url":"https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/machine-hallucinations-space-metaverse"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Machine Hallucinations, Chapter II: Mars — Sotheby's 2025","type":"other","url":"https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2025/origins/machine-hallucinations-mars-infinite-ai-data"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Refik Anadol Among Top Sellers at Sotheby's $17.3M Saudi Debut — Artnet News","type":"news_article","url":"https://news.artnet.com/market/work-of-the-week-refik-anadol-machine-hallucinations-2608627"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Modern Dream: Refik Anadol's Machine Learning and NFTs — MoMA Magazine","type":"official","url":"https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/658"},{"credibility":1,"name":"MoMA Acquires Refik Anadol's 'Unsupervised' — ARTnews","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/moma-acquires-refik-anadol-unsupervised-digital-art-nfts-1234681622/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"An Inside Look at How Refik Anadol Entered MoMA — ARTnews","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/how-refik-anadol-digital-art-entered-moma-ny-art-world-1234707079/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"An Extremely Intelligent Lava Lamp — Artnet News","type":"news_article","url":"https://news.artnet.com/art-world/refik-anadol-unsupervised-moma-2242329"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Refik Anadol: The Illusionist of Empty Data — ArtCritic","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.artcritic.com/en/refik-anadol-the-illusionist-of-empty-data/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Refik Anadol's 'Unsupervised' Criticism — e-flux","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.e-flux.com/criticism/527236/refik-anadol-s-unsupervised"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Machine Hallucinations Space Collection — OpenSea","type":"on_chain","url":"https://opensea.io/collection/refik-anadol"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Machine Hallucinations NYC Collection — OpenSea","type":"on_chain","url":"https://opensea.io/collection/machine-hallucinations-nyc-by-refik-anadol"},{"credibility":2,"name":"NFT Culture: Machine Hallucinations NYC Deep Dive","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.nftculture.com/nft-news/refik-anadols-machine-hallucinations-a-deep-dive-into-the-ethereal-nyc/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Digital artist Refik Anadol's NFT sales exceed $30 million — HTX News","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.htx.com/feed/news/807081/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"From MoMA to Sotheby's: How Refik Anadol Scaled the AI Art Market — MutualArt","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.mutualart.com/Article/From-MoMA-to-Sothebys--How-Refik-Anadol-/A5DC46A85202F6F3"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Unsupervised — Machine Hallucinations — MoMA Exhibition Page","type":"official","url":"https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5535"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Machine Hallucinations Mars Landscapes — Ethplorer","type":"on_chain","url":"https://ethplorer.io/address/0xe604d1bcd6ac7a03461e8e56500d60d476f1e569"}],"summary":"Machine Hallucinations is a series of AI-generated NFT artworks created by Turkish-American media artist Refik Anadol, deployed on the Ethereum blockchain beginning in 2021. The project has generated over $30 million in total NFT sales across multiple collections auctioned through Sotheby's, Christie's, and secondary markets including OpenSea. The project is notable for its institutional legitimacy — MoMA acquired the related 'Unsupervised' work as its first NFT in its permanent collection — but has attracted criticism regarding conflicts of interest between museum endorsement and commercial NFT promotion.","timeline":[{"date":"2016-01-01","event":"Refik Anadol begins Machine Hallucinations research during Google Artists and Machine Intelligence residency, the first AI data aesthetics project of its kind.","source":"Refik Anadol Wikipedia","source_url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refik_Anadol"},{"date":"2019-01-01","event":"Machine Hallucinations: NYC version exhibited, processing 300 million photographs of New York City using GAN algorithms. Anadol wins Lumen Prize Gold Award.","source":"Refik Anadol Wikipedia","source_url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refik_Anadol"},{"date":"2021-10-04","event":"Machine Hallucinations — Space: Metaverse auctioned at Sotheby's Hong Kong. The lead lot sells for approximately $2.35 million USD (HKD 18,325,000), exceeding presale estimates. Total auction raises approximately $5 million.","source":"Sotheby's 2021 auction page","source_url":"https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/machine-hallucinations-space-metaverse"},{"date":"2021-11-01","event":"Machine Hallucinations — NYC collection (1,000 unique ERC-721 tokens) minted in collaboration with Artechouse NYC and made available via Nifty Gateway.","source":"OpenSea collection page","source_url":"https://opensea.io/collection/machine-hallucinations-nyc-by-refik-anadol"},{"date":"2022-11-19","event":"Refik Anadol's 'Unsupervised — Machine Hallucinations — MoMA' opens at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Associated NFTs minted on Feral File with MoMA receiving 17% of primary and 5% of secondary sales.","source":"MoMA exhibition page","source_url":"https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5535"},{"date":"2023-09-14","event":"Machine Hallucinations: NYC Burn event launches on Nifty Gateway. Holders can exchange three MH NYC tokens for one MH Burned NYC token, a burn mechanics event running September 14-17, 2023.","source":"NFT Culture","source_url":"https://www.nftculture.com/nft-news/refik-anadols-machine-hallucinations-a-deep-dive-into-the-ethereal-nyc/"},{"date":"2023-10-01","event":"MoMA acquires 'Unsupervised — Machine Hallucinations — MoMA' as the first NFT artwork in its permanent collection. The show had attracted over three million visitors.","source":"ARTnews","source_url":"https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/moma-acquires-refik-anadol-unsupervised-digital-art-nfts-1234681622/"},{"date":"2025-01-01","event":"Machine Hallucinations – Space, Chapter II: Mars (Infinite AI Data Painting) sells at Sotheby's for $900,000. Buyer pays in cryptocurrency, purchase attributed to the Bity Foundation.","source":"Sotheby's 2025 auction page","source_url":"https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2025/origins/machine-hallucinations-mars-infinite-ai-data"},{"date":"2025-01-01","event":"Anadol receives Time 100 Impact Award. Total NFT sales across all collections reported to exceed $30 million.","source":"HTX News citing artist statement","source_url":"https://www.htx.com/feed/news/807081/"}]},"v":1}

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   python -m src.verify_decision 98767a80-cbd0-4ac7-8d0c-d9a8ed7aeb6bcopy