Controversy over the development and application of generative artificial intelligence is it compliant to constantly ＂feed＂ personal paintings to AI big models？
Beijing, China, December 6 (Reporter Zhou Yifan, Voice of China, General Station) According to the report of Voice of China, the Central Radio and Television General Station, recently, four painting creators sued the main company of the social platform Xiaohongshu and the main company of Xiaohongshu Trik software to the court, which caused concern. In the first half of this year, Xiaohongshu launched Trik, an AI painting picture generation model. Some fans found that the pictures, painting styles and some elements updated by Trik account were similar to the works of some painters.
Painters believe that Xiaohongshu is suspected of using their works to provide AI models for learning and generating highly similar works, which infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of the creators, so he sued the court. Since the release of ChatGPT, there have been disputes about the development and application of generative artificial intelligence. Should the data "fed" to the AI big model meet certain specifications? Does the expressive content it generates constitute infringement?
Recently, four painters sued Xiaohongshu main company Xingyin Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and Xiaohongshu Trik software main company Ipsilong Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. respectively, on the grounds that Xiaohongshu was suspected of infringing the copyrights of four painters.
In an interview with Voice of China, the painter "Genuine Youth Tuanzi" said that he found the suspected infringement in August this year. "In August this year, friends who painted and fans on my little red book told me in private that I found some pictures very similar to my works, so I went to the relevant notes and found that these pictures were all generated by the AI of Little Red Book. After discovering this, I released Weibo to defend my rights, and also posted a message on the platform of Little Red Book that I would stop updating to resist the infringement of Little Red Book AI."
Trik is suspected of infringing the works of Youth League members (1)
Trik is suspected of infringing the works of Youth League members (Part II)
Painter’s "Genuine Youth Tuanzi" Works
According to public reports, Xiaohongshu launched an AI painting creation application called "Trik" in the first half of this year. After users upload any photos, they can generate artistic paintings with one click, and the pictures questioned by painters are from this application.
Another painter, "It’s Snow Fish", stopped updating his official account of Little Red Book on August 10th this year, and wrote in the statement: Because the official of Little Red Book "feeds" AI his paintings without permission, and the overlord clause in the user agreement, he will not publish his works on the platform of Little Red Book from now on. Many of Xue Yu’s creative inspirations come from China’s ancient fairy tales. In contrast pictures, he shows the similarities between them. For example, in the theme of Kuafu’s Day by Day, Xue Yu shows Kuafu’s persistence in chasing the sun, visualizing these emotions of fear and fatigue into the image of a beast; The image of "wolf" appears in the picture generated by Trik, the AI software of Xiaohongshu. Xueyu believes that Trik is not "generative learning" in essence, but splitting and reorganizing his pictures. In the explanation of Qing Tuanzi, it is also pointed out that the color matching elements and picture styles are highly similar.
Comparison between Trik’s Works and the painter’s "It’s Snow Fish"
Snowfish issued a stop statement in Xiaohongshu in August this year.
Qing Tuanzi said: "From a painter’s point of view, I think the pictures it produces are a disguised version of the manuscript, including the brushes I use in my paintings and the detailed ways of depicting flowers, which are all created by myself and have personal marks. But you can see the shadow of this work in his paintings. "
Qing Tuanzi believes that the formation of painting style is the condensation of personal wisdom and needs the efforts of creators. Learning AI big model "indiscriminately" will reduce the space for human creative development. "If you just say plagiarism between paintings, there are also relevant laws and regulations in law. I think a painter must take time to form his own style, even if you learn from other people’s styles, it will take time. However, AI can produce such homogenized pictures in large quantities, which is actually compressing the creative space of the original author in disguise. "
In the written reply to Voice of China, the painter "the clouds are light and the wind is light" said that after the case was filed, Xiaohongshu hoped to negotiate with the painters, but everyone agreed not to accept mediation, hoping that this case could become a reference case when AI drawings and creators had copyright disputes.
The contrast picture released by the painter Yun Danfeng is generated by Trik on the left and the artist’s work on the right.
The contrast picture released by the painter Yun Danfeng is generated by Trik on the left and the artist’s work on the right.
Qing Tuanzi said: "Our main appeal through legal channels is definitely to stop the infringement. At the same time, we hope that through this case, everyone will pay attention to the infringement of the AI model base. AI, like processing things in a factory, is generated in batches. However, painting actually does not require one-click creation. When learning or copying a style becomes very simple, no one wants to spend any more time creating new styles. "
As for the specific circumstances of the case, the reporter also got in touch with Xiaohongshu. The other party said that it is inconvenient to release more information because it has entered the judicial process.
The essence of generative AI is to generate new data with specific characteristics or attributes by learning and analyzing a large amount of data. Should the data "fed" to the AI model meet certain specifications? In April this year, the National Internet Information Office issued the Administrative Measures for Generative Artificial Intelligence Services (Draft for Comment). In July 2023, the Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services was released.
Zhao Zhanling, a researcher at the Intellectual Property Center of China University of Political Science and Law, believes that the identification of "substantial similarity" will be the key in the case of four painters suing Xiaohongshu main company and Xiaohongshu Trik software main company. "Regarding the Measures for the Administration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services (Draft for Comment), there is a provision that the data activities of this pre-training and optimization training shall comply with the following provisions, one of which is that those involving intellectual property rights shall not infringe upon the intellectual property rights enjoyed by others according to law. However, there is no clear regulation on whether the act of using other people’s paintings as a database for pre-training or training involves intellectual property rights. If we say that the generated result itself is substantially similar to that of others, this undoubtedly constitutes infringement. However, if we say that the results generated by AI are not substantially similar to other people’s works in the legal sense, is it ok to only use paintings as the material for the’ feeding’ big model? The management method is not clear. Therefore, the key lies in whether the generated result itself is substantially similar to other people’s works. "
Bao Ran, deputy secretary-general of Zhongguancun Modern Information Consumption Application Industry Technology Alliance, said that with the development of AI technology, similar disputes and lawsuits are bound to appear one after another, and both the industry and the law should answer the above questions.
Bao Ran said: "The new wave of technology represented by generative artificial intelligence is based on deep learning and neural network technology, based on the framework of transformer, and then training the model of generative artificial intelligence in the form of massive feeding of artificial corpus. In this field, at present, in fact, there has always been a question whether the relevant corpus used to train the generative artificial intelligence model involves infringement. Many basic concepts and technical principles of this emerging technical tool, technical means and algorithm are still unclear to most people. At present, there are many gaps, so we understand that this field must be a high-risk area for litigation and disputes for a long time. "
From the perspective of legal norms, it is also necessary to further formulate detailed rules around industry development and social consensus in the future. Yu Yamin, an intellectual property legal expert, believes that promoting the development of emerging technologies is as important as earnestly safeguarding legitimate rights and interests. "Some time ago, in the first case of AI generating copyright in related fields of pictures, there was a view that I agreed with the artificial intelligence model: it was actually just a tool for human creation. From this perspective, the works in this case can be attributed to the category of fine arts. However, this is actually different from the mode of copyright infringement. The traditional copyright infringement is that the alleged infringer uses the relevant works without authorization. In the creative environment of artificial intelligence model, AI actually uses other people’s works to form a new picture and work through re-processing or derivation, and the similarity comparison between the newly generated works and the works of the original works owners, as well as the process of artificial intelligence synthesis, should be regulated by corresponding rules, and we also look forward to the improvement of relevant laws. "
According to the reporter’s understanding, the case of four painters suing Xiaohongshu main company and Xiaohongshu Trik software main company has been filed, and the voice of China will continue to pay attention to the follow-up progress.
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