Gary Man – Founder and Creative Director of Bumblebee Studios Limited has been actively using A.I. Gary has prepared a series of articles discussing best practices, pluses, and minuses of using Artificial Intelligence. The below article, is therefore the second in a series. (Click here to read part 1).
Gary is a prolific toy designer and inventor, Gary’s clientele includes a diverse clientele from 12+ countries around the globe. Gary was one of the pioneers introducing AI design to Toy companies. He also created TOY AIDEAS & AIPRECIATIONS groups at FaceBook, dedicated to introducing AI applications in toy design. All art in this article was created by Gary using AI.
Copyrights & AI – The Discussion
AI-generated art is not considered copyrightable because it does not meet the criteria for original works of authorship under US Copyright Law. According to the law, an author must be a human who has created something from their own creative effort or intellect.
Copyrights & court actions – The Reality
AI image generators have just been reaching the commercial level recently. Based on our research, there has been only one court case about AI art copyright infringement targeting modern AI image generators, which is irrelevant to the toy business.
On January 14, 2023, a group of artists — Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKer-nan, and Karla Ortiz — filed a class-action lawsuit against Midjourney and Stability AI, companies behind AI art tools Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, and DeviantArt.The group is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages. The lawsuit is still pending in court and has yet to be resolved.Based on our research, there is no reported case of successful prosecution of toy product copyright infringement by using AI-generated art so far. However, this does not mean such a case does not exist or will not happen in the future. We may have missed some cases that have yet to be publicized. Also, the legal situation of AI-generated art is still uncertain and dynamic. It may change as new laws or precedents are established.
