Is the AI Tool using Copyrighted Content?

Quick Answer

  • The images that the AI was trained on were publicly available images on the internet. Some of those were copyrighted. Such a copyright usually means that the original image can not be duplicated and used by someone else. It is not clear if just looking at the image for training purposes violates that copyright.
  • That said, the result of that training, the AI "brain" uses NO images when generating content.
  • The images produced by the AI belong to the prompt writer. It is questionable if copyright applies to them as it is not clear how much writing a good prompt (the human input) qualifies as copyrightable.

In Depth

In more detail, the AI has been trained on publicly viewable images on the internet, similar to how a human artist would train themselves by trying to look at art masterpieces. The result of that training is the AI is quite capable of turning a user's vision into reality. This final version is not using copyrighted images in the creation process.

Imagine a human artist looking at the Mona Lisa, studying art style and techniques used and then going home painting an image that is similar in style. They are not violating any copyrights by doing that, they are not "using" the Mona Lisa, yet their work wouldn't be possible without having looked at it.

The company we are using to provide the image generation services is one of the biggest players in the market, and they are involved in several legal arguments where the above questions are being explored:
https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/16/23557098/generative-ai-art-copyright-legal-lawsuit-stable-diffusion-midjourney-deviantart

At this point we are watching the space closely, and will obviously never offer anything known to be illegal. From a moral standpoint we would appreciate it if the big players in the space would honor artists' work that is being used for training in some form, it seems fair. We will share any updates as we come across them, in the meantime we urge students and educators to familiarize themselves with the space and outside of enjoying AI as an incredibly empowering tool to learn and discuss the implications of that technology for broader society.