>> Are the AI generated images copyrighted?
you wrote
> No, this is already established in the US.
What cases are you then using to conclude this?
>It is not copyrighted by default anymore than any other trivial non de minimis effort
I doubt de minimus applies, since the images coming out of this AI are no where near any originals that I've seen - they may similar style, but they're so completely different that they are almost all certainly copyrighted by the author.
For example, the simplest, littlest effort to snap a picture gives it full copyright. This AI takes more work to use than snapping a picture.
And de minimis would be on the infringer to prove - the owner still has a copyright until proven otherwise. So the images are most likely copyrighted.
Anything copyrightable in the US is automatically copyrighted by default upon creation. It's why any photo taken is immediately copyrighted by the photographer. Any painting is automatically copyrighted by the painter. Any computer art is automatically copyrighted by the computer operator.
I'd expect most of these works are copyrighted just as much as if someone painted them, or used blender to make them, or used a collage tool to merge self owned photos.