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by iamleppert 619 days ago
Based on his argument, the human component should and rightfully be copyrightable. In this case, it's the prompt or conversation he had with the AI. That should definitely be able to be copyrightable, but I agree that the image itself should not.

This is the fundamental problem with AI -- if the government isn't willing to protect it, there is fundamentally no market for it. What does that say about the value of the actual AI tools? If the content and images you produce with them can no longer be protected, what value are the tools used to create them?
3 comments
Lerc 619 days ago
>in this case, it's the prompt or conversation he had with the AI. That should definitely be able to be copyrightable, but I agree that the image itself should not.

If you accept that, does that mean source code is copyrightable but compiled code is not?

I'm kind-of ok with the raw output of diffusion models being public domain. It gets more complicated when The process is more than just Text->Image. Artists spending large amounts of time iterating, compositing, inpainting etc. are applying their knowledge of style, design, colour, and lighting.

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drivingmenuts 619 days ago
Source code for software is pretty exacting - the compiler or interpreter follows discernible rules to reach an end product. An image prompt has a random element to the end result - no one is really able to nail down the rules to describe exactly how the end result is produced. There's not so much creativity, just very abstruse statistical calculation.
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fny 619 days ago
Recipes are not copyrightable.

If the food you produce with them can no longer be protected, what value are the tools used to create them?

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iamleppert 619 days ago
That's a bad analogy. Food is consumed exactly once and has to be produced again each time, and thats where the majority of the value is, even for food that is produced many times over from a recipe.
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fny 619 days ago
By your logic, Coca-Cola has no reason to keep their recipe a trade secret.
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deepsun 619 days ago
Yes, but we need to figure out whether it's good or bad.

E.g. medieval craftsmen assumed that monopolies were good, but today we consider them bad.

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