Artificial Intelligence has entered the art space. AI has been used to create paintings, music, literature and poetry to name a few disciplines. The use of algorithms in the creation of artwork raises tricky questions in the art world, possibly creating new gray areas in ownership and intellectual property.
"The person who creates an algorithm owns the algorithm. If the algorithm is critical to the creation of the art — and the artist is a separate person — there's shared ownership that needs to be figured out," said Brett Ashley Crawford, professor of arts management at the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and director of the Arts Management and Technology Laboratory (AMT Lab) at Carnegie Mellon University.
Crawford said that in visual art, ownership is typically transferred upon sale, whereas in music and performing arts there's often a licensing agreement or a transfer of rights rather than ownership. If an algorithm is used to create music, and then that music is streamed on Spotify, the resulting payment structures may be quite complex. Similarly, if the images, music, or data used to train an algorithm is not fully in the public domain or open source, that could complicate things even further.