Who owns ip rights for ai-generated art?

AI tools are now readily available to everyone, regardless of programming or data science skills. You can easily use AI to generate text, images, or code in just a few seconds by simply inputting what you want to see. However, the question of ownership arises when it comes to art created by AI. Can you display AI-generated art in commercial presentations or publish AI-generated books without infringing on someone else’s copyrights?

In theory, copyright laws were created in the late 18th century to give creative individuals ownership over their creations and incentivize them to create more. Copyright laws protect works of art, such as text, images, architecture, etc., created by human beings. Therefore, technically, AI is not a human being and AI-generated art is not eligible for copyright protection. Another factor to consider is that the work must be “creative” to be covered by copyright. One way to determine the level of creativity in AI-generated art is to see if the text is not just a functional algorithm describing steps to follow.

In practice, the most valuable skill when using AI tools is the way you ask questions and input data to the model, also known as prompting. As a digital creator, you have options for protecting the art you create using AI, depending on whether you use unique input or material subject to IP protection as input.

For protecting the art created with your unique input, you can use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as cryptographic evidence of ownership of a digital asset. Another aspect is that the input itself is definitively a unique human created text. Any other user with the access to the same tool would be able to get the similar output if the same input is given to the machine. So the original input may be copyright protected if it qualifies for “creativity” criteria as described earlier. Additional level of IP protection can also be added, for example if you brand the AI work with your own trademark, or apply a unique design to the products.

You may also instruct AI to modify already existing asset, like an image, text or code that already have copyright. If you use copyrighted material as input and modify it using AI, you are creating a derivative work and may need permission from the original copyright owner to use it.

You can also use AI to recreate a logo that is registered as a trademark, or create your own logo based on the existing brand. However, using this image without the owner’s permission may be considered trademark infringement.

So what are the implications for business?

Works created using your own original input are not subject to copyright restrictions and can be used freely by anyone. No IP means that you won’t have a competitive advantage so your competitors are free to copy the content, unless you use additional layers of unique IP.

However, if you use AI to modify copyrighted material or trademarks, you may need to obtain permission from the intellectual property rights owner. Still, your own work or the output won’t have IP protection because it is created by the machine.