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🤖 Problems W/ Award Winning AI art

🤖 Problems W/ Award Winning AI art

AND A Follow Up On Yesterday's Story

Davis McCondichie
September 08, 2023

What's up? You're reading Inclined AI. We’re the only reason you wish there were another work day after Friday so that you could get another edition in before the weekend.

Here's what is on tap today:

This art won an award, but the artists can’t copyright it
Kaedim rebrands after getting called out
A16z backs an uncensored AI
Apple ups its AI spending

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See this image—it won an award at the Colorado State Fair.

Why in the world am I trying to tell you about an art piece submitted to a local state competition? Because it was generated by AI, and the artist, Matthew Allen, had his copyright for it rejected.

The US Copyright Office said the art had too much machine and not enough human elements. This is an odd decision, considering Allen did add his edits and alterations to the generated image.

Which brings us to the big question:

How much human alteration is enough? No one knows the answer, and the amount of gray in this issue makes things look like a Wednesday Addam’s fever dream.

It’s not even a new issue. Earlier this year, the US Copyright Office weighed in on AI copyright for the first time and clarified that AI-generated images cannot be copyrighted.

Now, they must define what that means, and that’s never an easy thing to do.

For instance, an artist who programs a machine to spray paint over a floor for performance art can copyright their work. After all, it was their vision and execution. But someone prompting Midjourney doesn’t get the same benefit.

There must be more flexibility for creative collaborations between humans and AI technology.

Allen put his ideas into that image, but we can feature it here because AI helped make it.

That doesn’t seem fair at all.

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Kaedim heard the notes and launched a new website in response.

The AI startup is rebranding and fixing its website to adjust its messaging. But, yeah, the timing is a bit suspect. They claim they’ve been working on this for months, and I don’t doubt that.

Kaedim was likely in the middle of upgrading their website, but fixing the wording could happen in one day. I’d be willing to bet on it.

But, look, we don’t want to pick on them.

Our piece yesterday criticized them for not being open about how they generate these images. This change is a step in the right direction.

Kaedim isn’t admitting that their artists are underpaid or that their AI fails more than it succeeds, which is something the original reporting claims.

Instead, they stuck with the practiced PR lines. The new site claims AI makes the first draft, and the artists only revise and edit it.

Again, that’s not a lie, and it’s not illegal.

But, come on, there are still some red flags here, and the fact they tried to pass this off as a decision that was made with no outside factors is obtuse.

We can still do better, you guys.