We have already seen that these generative AI systems lead rapidly to a number of legal and ethical issues. ‘Deepfakes’, or images and videos that are created by AI and purport to be realistic but are not, have already arisen in media, entertainment and politics. Heretofore, however, the creation of deepfakes required a considerable amount of computing skill. Now, however, almost anyone will be able to create them.
OpenAI has attempted to control fake images by ‘watermarking’ each DALL·E 2 image with a distinctive symbol. More controls are likely to be required in the future, however – particularly as generative video creation becomes mainstream.
Generative AI also raises numerous questions about what constitutes original and proprietary content. Since the created text and images are not exactly like any previous content, the providers of these systems argue that they belong to their prompt creators. But they are clearly derivative of the previous text and images used to train the models. Needless to say, these technologies will provide substantial work for intellectual property (IP) attorneys in the coming years.
From ‘How Generative AI is Changing Creative Work’, Harvard Business Review
