AI-Generated Images Need Human Touch To Be Copyrighted, US Government Proclaims

AI-generated art has sparked debates due to concerns about copyright infringement. These systems often source images from the internet, which puts artists at risk of having their work stolen without permission.

The US Copyright Office (USCO) previously ruled that text-generated art from systems like Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, or Midjourney would not be copyrightable. This is because the text prompt used to generate the art is considered equivalent to commissioning an artist’s services.

“When an AI technology receives solely a prompt from a human and produces complex written, visual, or musical works in response, the ‘traditional elements of authorship’ are determined and executed by the technology — not the human user,” the office stated.
 
In this sense, the USCO maintains that “users do not exercise ultimate creative control” in the finished product. The body has “well-established that copyright can protect only material that is the product of human creativity.”
 
The copyright office will take each case individually to deduce if the presented image is from a model’s “mechanical reproduction” or is genuinely from a human author. If deemed to have been from the mind of a person, it is possible that further review will be conducted.
 
In addition, a new initiative from the organization is diving further into copyright law and policy issues concerning AI after a request from Congress and the public.
 
 
 
[via Engadget and DIY Photography, Photo 269964674 © Yar29011988 | Dreamstime.com]