Opinion: The Copyright Office is making a mistake on AI-generated art (arstechnica.com)

submitted 9 months ago by greenskye@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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I've generally been against giving AI works copyright, but this article presented what I felt were compelling arguments for why I might be wrong. What do you think?

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[-] Goopadrew@beehaw.org 8 points 9 months ago

I think the major difference that determines copywrightability is the amount of control the artist has on the outcome. If a photographer doesn't like the composition of a photo, there's a variety of things they can do to directly impact the photo (camera positioning/settings, moving the subjects, changing lighting, etc.), before it's even captured by the camera. If someone is generating a picture with AI and they don't like the composition of the image, there's nothing they can do directly impact what the output will be.

If you want a picture of an apple, where the apple is placed precisely at a certain spot in frame, a photographer can easily accomplish this, but someone using AI will have to generate the image over and over, hoping that the algorithm decides to eventually place the apple exactly in the desired spot

[-] barsoap@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

before it’s even captured by the camera. If someone is generating a picture with AI and they don’t like the composition of the image, there’s nothing they can do directly impact what the output will be.

That is plain incorrect.

[-] greenskye@beehaw.org 3 points 9 months ago

This isn't true with AI generators. You can absolutely draw in a shitty stick figure with the pose you want and it'll transform that into a proper artwork with the person in that pose. There are tons and tons of ways to manipulate the the output.

And again, we give copyright to artists that incorporate randomness into their art. If I throw darts at paint filled balloons I get to copyright the output. It would be absolutely impossible to replicate that piece and I only have vague control over the results.