So recently there has been a lot of debate on AI-generated art and its copyright. I’ve read a lot of comments recently that made me think of this video and I want to highly encourage everyone to watch it, maybe even watch it again if you already viewed it. Watch it specifically with the question “If an AI did it, would it change anything?”
Right now, AI-generated works aren’t copyrightable. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/ai-generator-art-text-us-copyright-policy-1234661683/ This means you can not copyright the works produced by AI.
I work in games so this is more seemingly relevant to me than maybe it is to you. https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/03/valve-responds-to-claims-it-has-banned-ai-generated-games-from-steam/ Steam has outright said, earlier this month, that it will not publish games on its platform without understanding if the training data has been of images that aren’t public domain.
So right now, common AI is producing works that are potentially copyright-infringing works and are unable to be copyrighted themselves.
So with this information, should copyright exist, and if not, how do you encourage artists and scientists to produce works if they no longer can make a living off of it?
Hey, you just stole my business model! (jk… or am I 🤔)
But seriously, just yesterday I saw a news blurb on TV about a studio making a game with AI-based characters like Einstein, Sagan, and similar, trained on all their published documents and public appearances. As far as I know, the Einstein real estate is a really greedy bunch of folks, charging through the nose for any material related to him… and I have my doubts they got a license for Sagan or the others either.
Just eager to see how that one plays out.
We’ll see. Likeness rights are also a thing.