Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

According to the news on April 4, with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, many people begin to use artificial intelligence tools to generate creative works such as images, music and even videos. But the question arises: does the copyright of these works belong to the user or the machine?

Last year, digital artist Chris Kashtanova created a comic book using artificial intelligence drawing tools, sparking a major debate about which person or algorithm created the comic book.

Kashtanova uses an artificial intelligence program similar to ChatGPT, Midjourney, which can generate various illustrations based on input prompts. She typed the following: "Zandaya leaves the gate of Central Park."... in front of us is an empty future of New York City, as described in science fiction. "

With these hints, Midjourney automatically generated an 18-page cartoon story, "Zarya of the Dawn of Dawn," about a virtual character similar to actress Zendaya Coleman (American actress and singer) wandering through desolate Manhattan hundreds of years later. Last September, Kashtanova won the full copyright of her work and announced on social media that this means that artists' artificial intelligence works are protected by law.

This copyright protection measure did not last long. In February this year, the US copyright Administration suddenly changed its position, and Kashtanova became the first person in the United States to lose copyright protection for creative works of artificial intelligence. The US copyright Office said the illustrations in Charya at Dawn were "not created by humans", but allowed Kashtanova to retain the rights to the script and storyline.

Now, with the help of a strong legal team, the artist is trying to challenge existing intellectual property laws in the United States again. When writing another new book, Kashtanova used the artificial intelligence program Stable Diffusion to scan her sketches and enter more tips for image modification. Kashtanova believes that the image based on the original work has enough artificial elements to obtain full copyright.

Kashtanova, whose new book is an autobiographical cartoon, said: "it would be strange if the book is not copyrighted."

A spokesman for the US copyright Office declined to comment. Neither Midjourney nor Stability AI was available for comment.

Break with convention while new artificial intelligence programs such as ChatGPT, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion become more and more popular and seem ready to change human expressions, the entire American legal system still does not specify who these achievements belong to, the user, the program owner, or the machine itself?

Legal experts say the answer could involve the ownership of billions of dollars.

The non-profit knowledge sharing organization Creative Commons is responsible for issuing knowledge sharing license agreements that allow creators to share their creative works. Former director Ryan Mockley (Ryan Merkley) said that if the users and owners of the new artificial intelligence system get the corresponding copyright, there will be huge benefits.

For example, companies can use artificial intelligence tools to produce a large number of low-cost, copyrighted images, music, videos and text for advertising, branding and entertainment. "copyright managers will be under tremendous pressure if copyright is allowed to be granted to computer-generated works," Merkeley said. "

In the United States and many other countries, people's creative works are usually protected by law. Copyright registration allows owners to choose how to share their results with others and to go to court to enforce their rights.

Courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have long held that the creator must be a human being. When the United States copyright Office refused to provide legal protection for the illustrations in Charya at Dawn, it cited some rulings. For example, they have refused to provide legal protection for a selfie inadvertently taken by a monkey with a camera or a song that the applicant claimed to have been written by the Holy Spirit.

Stephen Sailer (Stephen Thaler), a computer scientist from Missouri, insists that his artificial intelligence programs are perceptual and should be legally recognized as the creators of the generated works of art and inventions. He has filed an application with the US Supreme Court, sued the US copyright Office and filed patent cases with the UK Supreme Court.

At the same time, many artists and companies with creative works are strongly opposed to granting copyright to artificial intelligence owners or users. They believe that because the new algorithms are trained through a large number of materials on the open network, including copyrighted content, artificial intelligence systems are gobbling up legally protected content without the owner's permission.

Image provider Getty Images, a group of visual artists and computer code owners have filed infringement lawsuits against artificial intelligence program owners such as Midjourney, Stability AI and ChatGPT developer OpenAI, but the companies deny the allegations. Getty and OpenAI declined to comment.

Artist Sarah Anderson (Sarah Andersen) is also one of the people who filed an infringement lawsuit. Granting copyright to works generated by artificial intelligence "will legalize theft", she said.

Difficult problem American law firm Meifu senior copyright lawyer Joe Gratz (Joe Gratz) free agent Kashtanova applied for copyright case. Gratz defended OpenAI in a class action on behalf of computer code owners. Kashtanova filed a new application after the copyright of Charya at Dawn was rejected and posted a post on recruitment platform LinkedIn to seek legal aid. Heather Whitney (Heather Whitney), an assistant to Meifu, saw the post and the law firm took over Kashtanova's case.

"these questions are difficult to answer and have a big impact on all of us," says Mr Gratz. "

The US copyright Office said it had re-examined Kashtanova's copyright on "Charya of Dawn" after discovering that all the illustrations posted by Kashtanova on Instagram were created with artificial intelligence. When Kashtanova first submitted her application last September, they did not know the creative channels. On March 16 this year, the US copyright Office issued guidelines requiring applicants to clearly disclose whether their work was created with the help of artificial intelligence.

According to the guidance, the most popular artificial intelligence systems may not produce copyrighted works. "what matters is the degree of control over creativity."

"I was shocked," Kashtanova said of her first contact with Midjourney. "I was completely stunned." Now, with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, Kashtanova is using new tools to enter the original sketch and use more specific commands to control what kind of image is generated.

In order to test the degree of "human control" to meet the requirements of the US copyright Office, Kashtanova plans to submit copyright applications for individual illustrations selected from the new comic book one by one. Each image is made with different artificial intelligence programs, different settings, and different methods.

Now, Kashtanova works for a start-up that uses artificial intelligence to turn children's paintings into comic books. A few weeks ago, she created the first such image, called the Mystery of the Rose.

Sitting in front of a computer in an one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, Kashtanova showed off the company's latest technology. They sketched a simple sketch on the screen and scanned it into the artificial intelligence system Stability AI and began to refine the image elements by adjusting settings and using tips such as "young semi-robot woman" and "flowers growing out of her head".

In the end, an otherworldly portrait is produced, with a female face in the lower part and several long-path roses in the upper part. On March 21, Kashtanova submitted an application for copyright protection for the work.

The picture will also appear in Kashtanova's new book, entitled "for my artificial Intelligence Community."

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