The US Government has ruled that AI-generated images cannot be copyrighted..
This decision was made following a case in which an artist and a tech company were sued for creating AI-generated images of famous athletes, which were then sold as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The court ruled in favor of the defendants, stating that the images were not original because they were created by an algorithm based on input text, and therefore could not be copyrighted. This decision could have significant implications for artists, musicians, and other creators who use AI to generate their creative expressions.
But this ruling is irrelevant in today's society.
Here is why:
- AI art is at the threshold of becoming indistinguishable from real photos and artworks made in various software (largely manual, cgi tools, etc). When this happens, submissions of AI art can proceed regardless. No budget can afford what an open source community of researchers can do in a matter of 48 hours in the current state of excitement around AI generative tools.
- Attempts at making AI generated images have watermarks will catastrophically fail and backfire on real photos taken manually by a photographer, and upon 'real artists' who use other algorithm enhanced tools (whoopsie, photoshoppers and cgi tool users).
- Any methods made to detect AI images are being circumvented as we speak in open source communities. The copyright office is almost extant at this point, unable to keep up in this age of invention -- Not only have they failed to address NFTs, they continue to fail to catch up with technology in other areas.
- The music industry and film industry has been employing AI in their copyrighted works. Since this ruling ignores this fact, the copyright ruling against generative art is void. A person can easily take this to trial against this ruling and succeed, setting precedent -- one that can cause the music industry to lurch out of its comfy seat. Simply provide countless examples of AI tools used in recent motion pictures and top rated albums on Spotify by the big music industry players.
**To summarize, there are numerous things in motion that negate any attempts to "reign" in AI art, AI music and more generative works. **
The copyright office seals its tomb with this ruling, as an artifact of an earlier period of time. NFTs ensure the creator has a chance to secure their rights, bypassing the need for the copyright office. Contracts on the blockchain efficiently perform a much needed operation in today's Web3 environment... something the copyright office has been unable to do.
Nothing can stop a tidal wave like this one, any more than we can stop nuclear war in the coming months or years.