Who owns AI-generated artwork? Revisiting the work of generative AI based on human-AI co-creation

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools have become increasingly common in educational contexts. However, questions remain regarding the ownership and copyright of intellectual property generated through human-AI collaboration. The present study explored Korean college students’ perceptions of ownership and copyright over images generated through the iterative process of refining prompts within AI image generators. Participants engaged in the image generation project of visualizing the meaning of target words using ChatGPT to generate prompts for the Bing Image Creator. Post-project survey and reflection papers were administered to assess their emotions, sense of ownership, and copyright views related to AI-generated images through the prompts. Sentiment analysis revealed the complexity of participants’ attitudes toward AI and its creation. Views on copyright varied from individual attribution to shared or uncertain ownership. Frequency of prompt use significantly influenced ownership and prompt-based perceptions of copyright. The results of this study provide insight into the intellectual property issues arising from human-AI co-creation, and point to the urgent need for more discussion and balanced views on creative collaboration with AI.