Last February we talked regarding the case of Jos Avery, a photographer who had made a name for himself on Instagram with his detailed portraits of people. Avery confessed that all his works were generated by an AI, which opened the melon of a debate that is far from over. Art or copy? Authorship of the work to a human or to the AI (if that is possible)?
Now, the copyright office has wanted to step forward with a kind of “style guide” where it clarifies its position on any debate on images generated by artificial intelligence tools. In essence, that guideline is saying that an image generated solely from a text message does not qualify for human authorship.
Not only that. The office made that quite clear by comparing the indications of text with “instructions for a commissioned artist”. Specifically, comparing them to a magazine editor hiring a photographer.
That being said, he left some doors open:
An artist may modify material originally generated by AI technology to such an extent that the modifications comply with standard copyright protection.
From the phrase it is understood that, if behind it there is a work sufficiently “visible” or appreciable to understand that the work was changed from the original, it might be given authorship to the human. Possibly, the quid The issue in this case will be to define what is meant by a new work following the respective modifications. Will the large number of professionals who, following the AI generated image, modify it with programs such as Adobe Photoshop, enter this list?
From the office they indicate that each case will have its individual treatment and study:
In the case of works containing AI-generated material, the Office will consider whether AI contributions are the result of ‘mechanical reproduction’ or rather than an author’s ‘own original mental conception, to which [el autor] gave visible form. The answer will depend on the circumstances, particularly how the AI tool works and how it was used to create the final work.
As we said at the beginning, the unstoppable rise of AI gives us an idea of what is to come in terms of copyright. We are at the beginning of a new era where the rules are being written as situations arise that until very recently were not even imagined.
