With the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, there has been a surge in the generation of images and other content. Unfortunately, with this increase comes the issue of plagiarism. Plagiarism, or the unauthorized use of someone else’s work and claiming it as one’s own, is an ever-growing problem in the digital age. But what about when it comes to AI-generated images? Is it possible for a machine to plagiarize? And should AI-generated images or prompts used to produce them be protected under copyright law?
On one hand, it can be argued that AI-generated images are not subject to plagiarism. After all, machines can only generate images based on the data that is given to them. It’s a process of learning and understanding, rather than creating something completely new. As such, it can be argued that AI-generated images are not plagiarizing, but rather using existing data to create something new.
On the other hand, if an AI is given a dataset of images and then uses that data to create a “new” image, it is still taking someone else’s work and claiming it as one’s own and can thus be considered plagiarism, even if the AI is not actually creating something original.
When it comes to protecting AI-generated images under copyright law, on one side, it can be argued that AI-generated images should be protected because they are the product of creative effort and should therefore be eligible for copyright protection. On the other hand, there is an argument that AI-generated images should not be protected because they do not involve any human creativity and are therefore not eligible for copyright protection and this is a stance that the US Copyright Office has taken. However, to acquire said image, you also need specific prompts and those do contain the human creativity factor, but most of the generators available leave the prompts generated by an user open to everyone to see and copy. Ultimately, it is important to consider the potential implications of not protecting AI-generated images. For example, if AI-generated images are not protected by copyright law, this could pave the way for companies to mass-produce AI-generated images without compensating the creators of the original images. This could have a negative impact on the economic viability of creating original images and could stifle creativity.
While some believe that AI-generated images should be considered as original works, others believe that they should be considered as derivative works of the original images used to train the AI. I wish I could contribute my own solutions to all of the above aspects, but personally the only clear answer that comes to me is that prompts should be protected and not readily available like most generators make them be. As for the rest, well, after researching those issues I only became more and more perplexed, and I hope you as a reader will give those your own thought. After all, the debate about this copyright black hole is ongoing, and it is likely that it will continue to be unresolved for some time to come.
Sources:
https://copyrightlately.com/using-ai-artwork-to-avoid-copyright-infringement/
https://www.kotaku.com.au/2022/08/ai-creating-art-is-an-ethical-and-copyright-nightmare/
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