> But is publishing a model which can generate images of Mickey a copyright violation?
A photocopier can generate images of Mickey. Does that make a photocopier illegal?
A photocopier can generate images of Mickey. Does that make a photocopier illegal?
That stance is clearly not supported by copyright law.
If, however, we're talking about copyright violations applying to the distribution of works generated by AI, that's an entirely different conversation. It's still not really clear-cut, but there are ways that could be in violation of copyright law.
It isn't the case that AI is being treated differently, though. The issues would be the same if a human were doing all of this stuff.