The Beijing Internet Court recently issued a first instance
judgment on AI-generated artwork, finding copyrightable elements in
an image created using Stable Diffusion. This is the first time
that China's courts have rendered a ruling on AI-generated
image artwork. In contrast, earlier in February 2023, the US
Copyright Office made a decision and deemed the images generated by
AI drawing tool Midjourney ineligible for copyright, underscoring
the importance of human authorship in copyright law.
By igniting debates on AI-generated content (AIGC) copyright,
these two cases encourage us to critically examine the interplay
between human and AI contributions to creation.
Yet, when comparing Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, the
creative process feels very similar. Users set prompts and adjust
settings, then choose from AI-generated images to refine further by
tweaking inputs until they reach a satisfying final artwork. What,
then, has led these two authorities to reach
