An American artist named Kris Kashtanova has secured copyright registration for her graphic novel that features AI-generated artwork. This is most likely a first for this type of content.
New York-based Kris Kashtanova’s announcement comes as works generated by artificial intelligence are causing controversy in the art world.
A work partly generated by AI, according to the artist
baptized Zarya of the Dawn, the graphic novel was made using the Mid-Journey image generation platform. Kris Kashtanova explained to the United States Copyright Office, an institution responsible for registering copyrights (similar to French copyrights), that artistic work was assisted by AI and not entirely created by it. Indeed, the artist wrote the story, made the layout and made specific choices to assemble the images.
” I obtained copyright from the United States Copyright Office for my AI-generated graphic novel. I was transparent about how it was made and put Midjourney on the cover page. It has not been modified in any other way. “, she wrote on her Instagram account.
As explained Ars-Technicait is likely that artists have already registered works created by machines or algorithms, because the history of generative art dates back to the 1960s. Nevertheless, this is the first time that an artist has registered a copyright. author for a work created by the new generation of text-based image-generating AIs, such as Mid-Journey, DALL-E or Stable Diffusion.
Art-generating AIs are controversial
These platforms, capable of generating a work of art in record time from simple keywords, were formed thanks to millions of already existing images and in particular works created by humans.
Their use is therefore very controversial in the art world: not long ago, Getty Images announced that it would ban the purchase and distribution of such images, precisely for problems related to copyright: “ There are real copyright concerns regarding the results of these models and unresolved rights issues regarding the imagery, image metadata and the individuals contained in the imagery. “explained the CEO of the image bank.
Other online art platforms like FurAffinity, Newground or PurplePort have also decided to ban this type of content as a show of support for artists, who consider it a form of theft of their work. In this context, there is no doubt that Kris Kashtanova’s approach to his graphic novel will help to animate the debate.
Sources: Ars-Technica, instagram
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