Who Owns the IP Rights to AI-Generated Art?

Headlines were made earlier this month when artwork created by artificial intelligence (“AI”) won a prize in a state fair. This artwork was created by a text-to-image AI generator and submitted to the Digital Arts/Digitally-Manipulated Photography category of the Colorado State Fair. While many argue whether this spells the end of art, it also raises interesting questions about copyright law and compensation for the humans responsible for the work’s creation.

Who Is the Creator/Owner of AI-Generated Art?

Recently, text-to-image AI generators have become more popular and accessible to the mainstream population. These generators are not new, however, as AI has been used to create art for decades. To produce such art, AI creates these paintings and drawings according to a set of rules predefined by programmers. The AI then uses these rules to learn a certain aesthetic by analyzing images, fed to it by the programmer, over and over again.  As the AI produces art in this aesthetic, the program and algorithms can be, and usually are, tweaked multiple times until a desired result is achieved.

But as such art becomes more popular, questions arise regarding copyrights and compensation for the humans partially responsible for the AI-generated art. Earlier this year, the U.S. Copyright Office affirmed a 2019 decision that AI could not claim authorship for a work. In the case at hand, Stephen Thaler created the algorithm that the AI followed and argued that his AI had created the art as a work-for-hire for him. Ultimately, the U.S. Copyright Office disagreed with his arguments.

How a Monkey Selfie and AI-Generated Art Create Copyright Questions

In 2011, debates raged over who was responsible for, and subsequently owned the copyright to, a selfie snapped by a monkey in Indonesia. While the U.S. Copyright Office clearly stated that copyrights could not be held by animals, photographer David Slater, whose camera was used by the monkey to snap the selfie, argued that he had lost tens of thousands of dollars in revenue due to the dispute. Slater has steadfastly claimed that, while he did not snap the actual photograph, he was integral to its creation.

Related Article: Even a Monkey Can Do It? A Copyright Fight Over Monkey Selfie

This parallels Jason Allen’s arguments regarding his award-winning entry into the Colorado State Fair. In defending his actions, Allen argued that he used a special prompt to create the art, and that the AI-generated art only resulted after hours of painstaking curation by him.

Thus, while the U.S. Copyright Office has clearly stated that AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted by the AI, it still raises interesting questions about compensation for the humans connected to the art in question. While Slater could not capitalize on his connection to the monkey selfie, Allen’s computer prompt will need to be explored to determine what it actually entails.

Key Takeaways on AI-Generated Art and Ownership Rights

AI-generated art made headlines again when it won first place in the Colorado State Fair. It behooves counsel to brush up on AI-generated art and copyright ownership because:

• Innovations in technology have made such generators more accessible to the general public;

• There have been efforts to copyright AI-generated art despite the U.S. Copyright Office’s guidance and stance; and

• Humans related to the creation of AI-generated art may eventually seek some sort of compensation.

For more information about copyrights, see our Software and Copyrights and Industry Focused Legal Solutions pages.