''Zarya of the Dawn'' is a short comic book written by Kris Kashtanova and illustrated entirely with the artificial intelligence software
Midjourney
Midjourney is an independent research lab that produces an artificial intelligence program under the same name that creates images from textual descriptions, similar to OpenAI's DALL-E and Stable Diffusion. It is speculated that the underlying t ...
, which resulted in a copyright dispute.
Plot
Zarya awakens in an abandoned New York City with no memories. A postcard from a person named Rusty falls out of their pocket, allowing them to remember their name and home address. After returning home and getting new clothes, Zarya meets Raya, their "inter-world assistant", who tells Zarya that a mental health crisis in 2023 led to the almost complete destruction of life on earth. Raya then takes Zarya to Zatura World, the world of acceptance. There, Zarya meets a mysterious woman and learns to accept their feelings. When they return to Central Park, it is covered in greenhouses. Zarya remarks that "acceptance is the first step of letting go".
Copyright dispute
In September 2022, Kashtanova applied for the comic's copyright protection with the
United States Copyright Office
The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that maintains records of copyright registration, including a copyright catalog. It is used by copyright title searchers who are ...
, but they did not disclose that the illustrations were created using Midjourney, an artificial intelligence image generator. The comic was granted copyright protection, but the Copyright Office initiated a proceeding to revoke the protection of the artwork after discovering the fact. The artwork's copyright protection was revoked in February 2023, and the Copyright Office explained that only human-created works can receive protection. Although the images themselves are not protected by copyright, the arrangement of the images and the text and story of the book are, as they are the creative work of Kashtanova and not the artificial intelligence.
See also
*
Artificial intelligence and copyright
*
Artificial intelligence art
Artificial intelligence art is any artwork created through the use of artificial intelligence.
Tools and processes Imagery
There are many mechanisms for creating AI art, including procedural 'rule-based' generation of images using mathemati ...
*''
Alice and Sparkle''
References
{{reflist
External links
*
Zarya of the Dawn' at AIcomicbooks
2022 comics debuts
Artificial intelligence art
Text-to-image generation
Copyright law
LGBT-related comics
Comics set in New York City
Public domain comics
Comics controversies
2020s webcomic debuts