Pop culture generally depicts artificial intelligence (AI) in extremes, from benevolent helpers like Rosie the Robot from “The Jetsons” to malevolent entities bent on humanity’s destruction, like HAL 9000 from 2001 or SkyNet from “The Terminator” movies. While these depictions make for captivating entertainment, they are far from the reality of today’s AI. Like any emerging technology, AI is entangled with legal issues. These legal issues may not make for compelling entertainment, but they are important in shaping the use and potential of AI.
While no member of the Jetson household had to accept terms of service before instructing Rosie the Robot, contracts—terms of service—governing the use of AI, such as Dall-E and Midjourney, carry significant implications that users and their counsel should understand. This is especially true when creators utilize AI to generate works and designs for clients. For example, consider the scenario where a furniture store commissions a design firm to create a unique carpeting design that can be used to manufacture carpets to be sold at the store. Looking to expedite the creation of the design, the designer inputs a prompt to their chosen AI tool, which promptly generates a design. Let’s use this scenario as the starting point to explore some pertinent questions.
