ESB AI vs Reality
There's been a lot of buzz recently about AI generated art. Will AI replace real life creators and who owns AI generated art? I opened a Discord account to try out Midjourney. On the left is an image generated by Midjourney with this prompt, "empire state building sunset clouds orange sky --ar 2:3". On the right is an image I took in 2020. I went through a few variations to get to this AI generated result. It looks interesting at first glance, but a closer inspection reveals some peculiarities. The spire is oddly shaped and the windows look like hieroglyphics. There is something suspended in the air next to the top of the building. The skyline itself is not one I recognize. I don't think AI generated art is ready to replace creators yet, but I'm sure these AI models will get better in the future and probably sooner than later. AI models "learn" from images created by real people, so the question is who should own AI generated art? I saw some AI results that appeared to have artist signatures in the corners. Did the AI model copy the real artist's signature? From a stock art perspective, the trend is already to devalue art and sell it in bulk at low prices. Most stock buyers don't care about the rights of artists and only care about getting more art at the lowest price. I can see stock buyers gravitating to AI generated art when the results become more accurate/realistic and the ownership issues are clarified.
AI generated art can currently be monetized. Midjourney images can be licensed if the user has paid for a commercial use account. That doesn't mean Midjourney generated art does not infringe on third party IP rights. I believe Adobe is accepting AI generated art for stock use. Getty is not accepting AI generated art at this time, but they did previously accept them a few months ago.
ESB AI vs Reality
There's been a lot of buzz recently about AI generated art. Will AI replace real life creators and who owns AI generated art? I opened a Discord account to try out Midjourney. On the left is an image generated by Midjourney with this prompt, "empire state building sunset clouds orange sky --ar 2:3". On the right is an image I took in 2020. I went through a few variations to get to this AI generated result. It looks interesting at first glance, but a closer inspection reveals some peculiarities. The spire is oddly shaped and the windows look like hieroglyphics. There is something suspended in the air next to the top of the building. The skyline itself is not one I recognize. I don't think AI generated art is ready to replace creators yet, but I'm sure these AI models will get better in the future and probably sooner than later. AI models "learn" from images created by real people, so the question is who should own AI generated art? I saw some AI results that appeared to have artist signatures in the corners. Did the AI model copy the real artist's signature? From a stock art perspective, the trend is already to devalue art and sell it in bulk at low prices. Most stock buyers don't care about the rights of artists and only care about getting more art at the lowest price. I can see stock buyers gravitating to AI generated art when the results become more accurate/realistic and the ownership issues are clarified.
AI generated art can currently be monetized. Midjourney images can be licensed if the user has paid for a commercial use account. That doesn't mean Midjourney generated art does not infringe on third party IP rights. I believe Adobe is accepting AI generated art for stock use. Getty is not accepting AI generated art at this time, but they did previously accept them a few months ago.