Artificial intelligence (AI) has the power to produce some amazing images. Whether you need a sleek industrial landscape, fuzzy animals, a cartoon likeness of a celebrity, or an abstract scene, AI can usually deliver. Creative industries struggle with the nuances of this technological development which is taking on a bigger role in that professional realm, not because it’s confusing but because there are legal issues surrounding their work. With help from intellectual property attorneys, creative clients can familiarize themselves with the evolving legal guidance where AI is concerned and learn how to protect their work.
Legalities Surrounding Artificial Intelligence
To the uninitiated, the AI and IP landscape is confusing, complex, and unfamiliar. This field is, in short, a work in progress as developments arise daily. To creatives, these changes in their world is often as welcome as they are unwelcome. Here are just some of the legal ways the realm is likely to shift:
- Changes to IP licenses to account for AI.
- Defamation actions when AI-generated content is not factual.
- Questions about the incorporation of a celebrity’s image in photos or videos.
- Infringement actions.
- Copyright violations.
- Modified or derivative works that are difficult to prosecute.
Ways for Creatives to Protect Their Work
Creatives bear the burden of some of the biggest AI punches. Artists, illustrators, designers, and other professionals in their field often feel like they’ve been slapped in the face when they discover an AI-generated work based on their original creation. Their artwork, characters, and imagination have been infringed upon. This is a fear every artist has, whether they draw, write, paint, sculpt, or otherwise. Their creations come from the mind and heart — any type of theft, or what seems like theft and infringement, is very personal.
- Look for uses of your intellectual property, including your name or likeness.
- Don’t sit by if you discover unauthorized uses.
- Reach out to a lawyer, especially before you launch a new project or want to respond to someone else’s project that infringes upon your intellectual property.
- Organizations like Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts are available to creative professionals who are unsure about certain legal matters.
Of course, there are also common sense choices creatives can make to protect themselves and their art:
- Limit what you make public online, whether on your website or social media.
- Guard your work and keep it close to the chest.
- Brainstorm other ways to sell your work and make a profit from it than just using the internet.
- Avoid putting anything in a digital format because it cannot be as easily copied without this option.
Anyone who works in digital media knows it’s impossible to keep a genie in the bottle, even if their works aren’t online. Fans of a person’s art in any form may take their own photos, mimic the work, create PDF scans or HTML versions, and upload derivatives or copies to share with others. Information has a life of its own.
The Artist or the AI?
Real anti-AI intellectual property enforcement likely will not be possible until federal courts make rulings specifically regarding artificial intelligence. This will involve the First Amendment and state laws, as well as copyright protection. Precedents must be set, like the lawsuit brought by comedian and author Sarah Silverman against Meta and ChatGPT parent company OpenAI alleging that both organizations used “shadow libraries” that illegally contained the authors’ protected works to train their AI products.
Get financial advice and support from Hollander Lone Maxbauer in Southfield, MI. Contact us to schedule a consultation.
