[jrm4]

I'm wary of how hard the law is likely to stick to e.g. "verbatim," which is to say, it implies that there is a meaningfully "creative" step that the computer is doing for purposes of escaping "infringement?"

Let's say I take a copyrighted picture, make it into a jigsaw puzzle and leave out a few pieces; I can't reproduce the original, but that's still certainly infringement.

[CuriouslyC]

If the correct assembly of the jigsaw puzzle was not hte original picture, but a rearrangement of the original picture with arguable satire/social commentary (such as people's heads being where their crotches should be) then that becomes fair use.

[jrm4]

No dispute there; and this will get us to what will be the ultimate question: An AI thing, or a human, could both end up with a result that looks like what you're describing. The question will be -- should these two things be seen as different, legally?

I'm fairly certain they should be seen as different, on their face, from a public policy point of view, i.e. I'm presently very comfortable ducking the question of "can they think," and for the present, assume they do not -- otherwise you're essentially saying that non human AI tools are "humans" for the purpose of copyright infringement.