ChatGPT doesn't just steal and slightly modify the original. It fully copies the style and feel, which aren't copyright protected.
You can't just change the color of Mikey Mouse, call him AI Mouse and be good, but you can certainly create a new Disney-style character without triggering copyright violations.
Is that for certain? I have a feeling this point could be debated.
If I give DALL-E or MidJourney a picture of myself that I took (and therefore I own the copyright), and ask it to "Recreate this picture in the style of Pixar", am I violating Pixar's copyright?
What if I decide to model it myself and deliberately imitate Pixar. Have I violated copyright?
What if I decide to model it myself, and it just happens to look similar to Pixar, because I've watched a lot of their movies and it has influenced how I model people in 3D animation. Have I violated copyright?
I wonder if Disney would sue if you tried to sell and distribute despite 100% of the pixels and audio file not exactly copying the original.
(Rhetorical question, Disney would definitely sue)
"Style and artistic expression are certainly linked, but they are not the same thing. In some instances, mimicking an artist’s style may constitute copyright infringement, but when this is true will necessarily require a case-by-case analysis. Simply working in a style that is similar to another artist does not automatically mean the work is a copy. Moreover, there may be legitimate reasons to produce works in another artist’s style. The law should allow artists to be inspired by each other, even if that means having similar styles. Doing otherwise would chill expression, ultimately harming human creativity and the purposes of copyright law itself."