Humans vs. machines: the fight to copyright AI art

A sketch drawn by Kris Kashtanova (L) that the artist fed into AI program Stable Diffusion and transformed into the resulting image (R) using text prompts. Courtesy of Kris Kashtanova/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) - Last year, Kris Kashtanova typed instructions for a graphic novel into a new artificial-intelligence program and touched off a high-stakes debate over who created the artwork: a human or an algorithm.

"Zendaya leaving gates of Central Park," Kashtanova entered into Midjourney, an AI program similar to ChatGPT that produces dazzling illustrations from written prompts. "Sci-fi scene future empty New York...."