China allows copyright for AI images.

The Beijing Internet Court said an AI-generated picture qualified as original artwork for copyright protection thanks to the human creator's input in designing it. To compare, the US rulings have been implying that AI creations cannot be copyrighted.

What’s going on here?

The Chinese court ruled that AI-generated images are subject to copyright law.

What does that mean?

A blogger shared an AI image created by someone else and got sued. The Court decided that the AI image creator has the copyright for the image because there was an intellectual investment in writing prompts, specifying parameters and processes to match aesthetic choice.

The blogger is fined 500-Yuan (about $70), though the decision can be appealed. Also, the court says that AI copyright should be discussed case-by-case.

Why should I care?

A US court disallowed giving users copyright to AI-generated material earlier this year. While many people are focused on the backwards-looking debate of the copyright drama: “Hey, they used my data to train”, I think the more important question is forward-looking: to understand who gets credit for the new images.

India earlier said that AI is not a person, so it can not get copyright but users might based on differences in cases. This decision from China seems similar. There’s certainly a difference in how different countries are looking at AI.