You Can Create Award-Winning Art With AI. Can You Copyright It?

The art world was rattled when Jason M. Allen won first place in the Colorado State Fair for “Théatre D’opéra Spatial” — digital artwork created with artificial intelligence.

Allen had revised his text prompts hundreds of times before landing on the final work; Allen considers Space Opera Theater his creation. But some artists hated his victory. “They were saying I was falsely attributing authorship to something I did not create,” Allen said.

After winning, he submitted the image to the US Copyright Office for a state-issued seal of approval, an official document certifying that the artwork was indeed his creation. Would the Copyright Office agree?

Jason Allen works inside his hotel room in Las Vegas in Sept. 2022.

(Mikayla Whitmore for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

We delved into the controversy surrounding the use of copyrighted material in training AI systems in our first two episodes of this season. Now we shift our focus to the output. Who owns artwork created using artificial intelligence? Should our legal system redefine what constitutes authorship? Or, as AI promises to redefine how we create, will the government cling to historical notions of authorship?

Guests:

• Jason M. Allen, founder of Art Incarnate
• Sy Damle, partner in the copyright litigation group at Latham & Watkins
• Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and director of the US Copyright Office

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