Beijing court’s ruling that AI-generated content can be covered by copyright eschews US stand, with far-reaching implications on tech’s use

The Beijing Internet Court has made a landmark ruling regarding artificial intelligence-generated content (AIGC). This is the first ruling of its kind in mainland China, where an increasing number of enterprises are utilizing AI technology to revolutionize industries and enhance people's daily lives.

The court ruled that a picture, created using US start-up StabilityAI’s text-to-image software Stable Diffusion, should be considered an artwork protected by copyright laws. This is due to the 'originality' and intellectual input of its human creator. The lawsuit was initiated by a plaintiff named Li, who used Stable Diffusion to create an image of a young Asian lady and posted it on Xiaohongshu, a social media platform in China. Li sued a blogger named Liu for allegedly using the image without permission on Baijiahao, a Chinese content-sharing platform.

The Beijing Internet Court ruled that the AI-generated image was an artwork and ordered Liu to issue a public apology and pay Li 500 yuan (US$70. 43) in damages and 50 yuan for court fees. The decision is open for appeal at the Beijing Intellectual Property Court. The court stated that Li 'made a certain degree of intellectual investment' in selecting prompt texts, setting up parameters, and designing the presentation. The 'originality' of the image means that Li had continuously added prompts and repeatedly adjusted the parameters to create a picture that reflected his 'aesthetic choice and personalized judgment'.