Just this week, Getty Images sued the makers of Stable Diffusion, an artificial intelligence system (“AI”) that creates art based on existing artwork, like Getty’s. Long before this copyright lawsuit, the line between artistic “influence” and infringement had been a blurry one, but some think the very paper it’s written on is disappearing.

The U.S. began losing its grip on copyright with an earlier groundbreaking technology heralded by Napster, the “file sharing” (and copyright infringing) web application that seemingly everyone had in the early 2000s. And the music industry has never been the same since.

Might AI-art be the next chapter in technology-fueled erosion of artists’ rights, where a promising new technology winds up disrupting, not enhancing, creativity?

If you ask the movies, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” SciFi offerings have long posited a startling, often menacing future, in which technology itself surpasses people’s ability to do everything, including inventing technology itself.
Many experts note that intelligence is just a naturally-arising technology, residing in our brains. And any technology can be reverse-engineered. From this logic, human-level artificial intelligence, with the ability to invent, just like us, appears to be guaranteed, and just a matter of time.
Others argue that invention by AI is plainly already taking place, right before our eyes. For example, we task complex AI neural networks with creating complex designs, including AI computer chips themselves.
But is it truly likely, or even possible, for machines to be inventive, in real life?