At Gizmodo, Lucas Ropek reports that Jason Allen, the compiler of the award-winning AI-generated painting Théåtre D’opéra Spatial, is now complaining that others are stealing “his” work. That’s rich, considering that Midjourney, the program he used, is itself accused of stealing countless copyrighted images used to generate the AI art.

The irony is certainly not lost on tech writer Ropek:

Critics claimed that Allen had cheated, but the prize winner didn’t have much sympathy for his detractors: “I’m not going to apologize for it,” Allen said. “I won, and I didn’t break any rules.” He also didn’t seem to care much for the complaint that AI companies like Midjourney—the one he used to create his “painting”— were poised to destroy the art market. “This isn’t going to stop,” Allen told the New York Times. “Art is dead, dude. It’s over. A.I. won. Humans lost.”

“Famous AI Artist Says He’s Losing Millions of Dollars From People Stealing His Work,” October 1, 2024

Apparently Allen thinks that, even though “art is dead, dude,” humans like himself are still entitled to assert copyright in the Midjourney program’s output, over against other humans. Thus he is appealing denial of copyright based on a March 2023 ruling by the Copyright Office that copyright cannot be asserted for AI productions.

Allen’s primary concern is that he’s not making enough money from the work. “I have experienced price erosion in the sense that there is a perceived lower value of my work, which has impacted my ability to charge industry-standard licensing fees,” he told Colorado Public Radio. “People Stealing His Work”

But isn’t that a direct outcome of the supposed death of art? Of course Midjourney’s sponsors deny wrongdoing.

Our director, computer engineering prof Robert J. Marks, offers a different approach. He suggests taking time and effort into account as well:

Allen says, using Midjourney AI software, he fine tuned the image for 100 hours using over 600 prompts.

There is no doubt that this commitment warrants a copyright. Allen used Midjourney as a tool and not as the source of his creativity. He is probably an honorable man but the precedent set by awarding him a copyright has ramifications. His claim needs evidence.

The only solution I can see to this AI copyright problem is to present meta-data to verify that numerous highly detailed prompts were used to create an image. Presenting the intermediate images would be helpful. “Jason Allen’s battle with AI copyright law,” Mind Matters News, October 9, 2024

The boundaries would still be fuzzy, Marks admits, but at least the human artistic judgment that underlies the prompts, acceptances, and rejections would be taken into account. If so, art isn’t dead; it is just going online. New payment structures and, as a last resort, data poisoning may be part of the mix.