In the context of the development and widespread introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) systems into all spheres of the economy and other spheres of society, the question of the prospects for legal protection of the results created by AI, as well as the advisability of such protection, becomes very relevant.
Today, AI systems generate a variety of objects, including works that can be protected by copyright. Technologies for generating texts, images, music have become so advanced that sometimes they cannot be distinguished from works created by man. Such works created by AI are actively used by people – they are published on social networks and the media.
At the same time, the question arises of whether copyright protection is applicable for the results of AI activities (that is, stimulating the author’s activities and ensuring a certain balance between the interests of the author and society). An object corresponding to copyright signs can be created, for example, by an animal (an example of creating a photograph of a monkey using a camera installed in the jungle is widely discussed in foreign literature), however, there are doubts not only about the possibility, but also about the advisability of providing copyright protection to such objects. A similar situation occurs when creating texts and images by AI systems.
In this regard, many problematic questions arise.
First, is computer creativity possible in principle? Can AI create creative works – works, or does it just process information without producing anything new? It seems that the second is more likely. A machine devoid of imagination reproduces the categories and images embedded in it by a person, so there is no genuine creativity, creation of something completely new.
Secondly, who should be stimulated? The developer of an artificial intelligence system or its user, who set it a certain algorithm or placed a certain amount of information in the system, spent money, etc.
Thirdly, who should be recognized as the author of the content generated by AI – the creator of the tool or its user? Can AI have intellectual rights?
And finally, are objects created by AI subject to protection, and if so, which one? Can they be protected according to legislation on copyright or related rights or other rights?
It seems that for this there is no need to use the mechanism of copyright protection, because the results generated by AI may well be protected as objects of related rights, if they correspond to the signs of their security (how, for example, databases are protected). Alternatively, maybe there is a need to introduce a special category of objects of intellectual rights (sui generis) – the results created by AI (as, for example, modes of topologies of integrated circuits, selection achievements and know-how were developed).
In addition to these common problematic issues, there is a problem of subjectivity in the evaluation of works of art. Traditionally, a work of art is inseparable from the personality of the author, is its continuation. “Black Square” or “Anna’s Light” are inseparable in the minds of the public from their authors – Kazimir Malevich and Barnett Newman. We evaluate works of art not by themselves (there can be no objective criteria here), but in close connection with their author, the creator, whose personality affects our perception. In the case of AI, art turns into a craft. Maybe the car will draw a tree more accurately than a person, but will it make the same impression on us as Arkhip Kuindzhi’s Birch Grove?
At the same time, contemporary art is now extremely complicated, multimedia works, performances, interactive shows appear, and digital technologies, including AI technologies, can really help in their development. Not as a subject of law, just as a tool that is in the capable hands of the author and serves to realize his creative plan – it helps to process vast amounts of information, process the image and sound in a special way, etc.
By Victoria Savina, Dr. Jurid. Sciences, Associate Professor, Professor of the Department of Civil Law Disciplines of the PRUE named after G.V. Plekhanov