What is AI drawing? What is Midjourney? Even Muggles can do it easily! Why does it cause controversy?

AI drawing has recently become a hot topic on the Internet, and it has quickly become popular.Midjourney, Disco Diffusion, which claims that as long as you enter keywords, you can generate exquisite images with a sense of design, and even design Muggles can easily get started. How to draw with AI drawing? What are Midjourney and Disco Diffusion? Who should own the copyright of AI drawings? Let’s find out together!

What is AI drawing? How does Midjourney, Disco Diffusion work?

AI drawing means artificial intelligence drawing. Users do not need to have superb drawing skills. They only need to enter keywords and use artificial intelligence calculations to generate visual works. Midjourney and Disco Diffusion are both so-called "AI generated rendering tools". After setting parameters, the user enters the desired theme, style, scene and other keywords, and AI will generate corresponding visual calculation works, turning abstraction into Be specific. Taking Midjourney as an example, it can generate four images in about one minute. Not only is the generation speed fast, but the finished product is also quite delicate and delicate, comparable to real-life paintings.

Currently, Disco Diffusion can open Google Colab directly through the browser and is free and open source. Midjourney is a new project participated by Somnai, one of the developers of Disco Diffusion. After the Beta test was opened in May last year (2022), it immediately aroused a heated discussion; the Open Beta version was further opened on July 12, and anyone can call it The AI robot program inputs text and generates pictures. At this stage, Midjourne has a free version and a paid version to choose from. The free version has limitations on the number of images generated and the number of fine-tunings; the paid version has multiple options based on quantity restrictions, generation time, whether the images are public, etc.

Can pictures generated by AI drawing be used commercially?

Although Midjourney is free for limited users, users of the free version are limited in the number of images they can generate and cannot use images for commercial purposes. Users of the paid version must pay US$30 (approximately NT$900) per month to use the generated images for commercial purposes, and can apply for full ownership of 10 works per month; however, the official terms of service point out that if the images are used for blocks For chain projects (such as NFT), if the amount exceeds US$20,000 (approximately NT$600,000), a 20% patent fee must be paid. In addition, Midjourney also stated that even if paid members are granted the right to freely create assets, if users knowingly infringe the rights and cause them to pay a price, they will turn to the users to claim legal fees, infringement fees, etc.

As for Disco Diffusion, because it is a free and open source software, in theory, the images generated by it can be used for commercial purposes for free. However, if the user enters keywords such as distinctive artists and commercial works, they may still face plagiarism disputes.

How to regulate AI drawing copyright? Where is the controversy?

Controversies such as plagiarism and copyright infringement often arise in the computer graphics circle. Who should own the copyright of image works generated by AI graphics? In the case of AI-generated art, is the role of AI a creative assistant tool, or is it the creator who leads the work? There is still no unified conclusion.

In Taiwan,Article 1 of the Copyright ActIt is stated that the purpose of the legislation is to "protect the author's copyright rights." In other words, the core concept of my country’s copyright law is to protect the creative expression of “human beings”. The Intellectual Property Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs alsoexpress, the work must be from a natural person or legal person, and the creation is protected by copyright; if the intellectual achievements are produced by machines or technology, in principle, they cannot enjoy copyright.

Taking the case of Midjourney AI drawing, there is a group of people who believe that AI is a tool to assist creation, and the actions of humans inputting characters and commands are enough to represent the original display of humans, and Midjourney works are deemed to have copyright. However, another group of people believes that if the work is not produced by humans, or the degree of human intervention is extremely low, it is an independent creation of AI and should not be protected by copyright.

Another controversial point worth discussing is that the drawing system can operate smoothly mainly by learning other people's digitized artworks or image creations. In the process of machine learning, it is likely that infringement issues have already been involved and are difficult to avoid. . Therefore, the emergence of AI drawing has not only triggered discussions in the art world, but also brought considerable impact to the legal world.

AI drawing is so powerful! Will designer jobs be replaced?

Will AI-generated graphics tools cause existing jobs to be replaced? There are still different opinions. Most artists believe that current image generation tools, whether Midjourney or Disco Diffusion, still have many technical shortcomings, such as insufficient semantic recognition and inability to accurately process portraits of people. Commercial use still requires professional adjustments and adjustments. communicate.

Another group of people is optimistic, advocating that AI-generated rendering tools can save overall production time, including assisting with sketches, early proposals, production picture references, etc. Making good use of AI may speed up work efficiency. An article published in the well-known magazine Analytics InsightarticleZhong also pointed out that AI-generated graphics tools should be used as a source of inspiration rather than an obstacle to creation.