AN artist based in New York City has been granted the first known registered copyright for artwork made using latent diffusion artificial intelligence (AI).

Kris Kashtanova received a copyright for a graphic novel titled “Zarya of the Dawn” made using the commercial AI art generator Midjourney, according to a statement posted to their Instagram account.

The copyright was verified by United Press International (UPI) through public records.

“I got copyright from the Copyright Office of the USA on my AI-generated graphic novel. I was open how it was made and put Midjourney on the cover page. It wasn’t altered in any other way. Just the way you saw it here,” Kashtanova said in the Instagram post.

“I tried to make a case that we do own copyright when we make something using AI. I registered it as visual arts work. My certificate is in the mail and I got the number and a confirmation today that it was approved.

“My friend lawyer gave me this idea and I decided to make a precedent.”

Though AI-generated art has likely been registered with the US Copyright Office in the past, Kashtanova’s claim marks the first known to have been registered that used models powered by latent diffusion.

UPI reported the copyright was granted by the US Copyright Office earlier this month amid ongoing controversy surrounding AI programmes such as Midjourney, DALLE, Imagen and Nightcafe.

It added that some artists and photographers have criticised the art-making platforms for violating their own copyrights, as the models that make them work have been trained on images scraped from the internet and stock photography websites. – Bernama, September 25, 2022.