AI & Copyright

A work of art created by artificial intelligence without any human input cannot be copyrighted under U.S. law, a U.S. court in Washington, D.C., has ruled. Yes, I’m talking about the work by computer scientist Stephen Thaler.

Mr. Thaler created AI programs that, in turn, created new art and new inventions. The Supreme Court ruled in April that AI can’t be an inventor on a patent, and now, the court in D.C. has ruled that a piece of art generated by Thaler’s system can not be protected by copyright, because it was generated without any human input.

I keep highlighting “without any human input” because this is the crux of the issue. What if I tell ChatGPT to write a joke? Well, I get this:

Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything!

That’s not very interesting to me, so what if I tell ChatGPT to make a joke about dogs? I get:

Why did the dog sit in the shade? Because he didn't want to be a hot dog!

That’s a little better, but how about cats?

Why did the cat sit on the computer? Because it wanted to keep an eye on the mouse!

(I’ll ignore that ChatGPT is biased against cats, by calling the cat “it” and the dog “he” and simply focus on the issue of this post.)

These jokes are still too simple and corny for me, so let’s add to it. What if I tell ChatGPT to make a joke about a dog chasing a cat who stole the dog’s left shoe? Boring. Try again. Several iterations later, we have:

Me: Tell a 3 sentence joke about a dog scratching his ear while talking to his human. The dog is a chihuahua named Buster. The human is a girl named Ava. They live in a house by the ocean. Buster forgets his ear itches because of something Ava says.

As Buster, the chihuahua, scratched his ear, he turned to Ava and said, "You know, living by the ocean is great, but sometimes I wish for a built-in sand repellent." Ava chuckled, "Well, you do have that chihuahua charm to keep the sand away." Buster grinned, forgetting his itch, "Oh Ava, you always know how to distract me from life's little irritations!"

It’s still a lame joke - ChatGPT has no real humor - but the point is, how much of this joke is AI, and how much is from me? Can I register this joke with the Copyright office? I honestly don’t know. Luckily, it’s just not funny enough for anybody to repeat…

I can’t believe I found a stock image of a girl with a chihuahua by the ocean…

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