I have seen a lot of articles and social media pushes to stop AI image creation because it can be trained to the style of a specific artist. It's constantly about how the poor artist won't be able to make mo ey because the AI can do their art for them.
I doubt this. Artists have multiple styles and are more well known for the story within their pictures. If I hired an artist who could repeat that style and do something similar then it's ok?
This makes no sense. Instead, I bet it's a big business trying to protect itself. Disney has a full department that decides on styles for art and presentations. Genie must look this way in all pictures and all artists must repeat it perfectly. Only Disney can sell products with this genie or anything close to it.
If I had AI make Genie doing something and then printed that out, there is very little Disney could do to stop it. This is the music industry vs Napster all over again.
As I understand it, there are three types of intellectual property. Patents protect inventions and processes, so that's not relevant. Copyright protects particular works, so that's not it. That leaves trademark.
The origin of trademark was craftsmen using a symbol to mark their products. The legal protection came when less skilled artisans used another's trademark, tricking customers into buying an inferior product and hurting the superior craftman's reputation.
Trademark infringement would probably apply if you, for example, had AI create an original image of the Aladdin genie and sold a t-shirt with it. People recognize him as a Disney character and would likely assume it's a Disney product (though fair use may apply).
Regarding AI, the question is whether Disney can trademark a style. For example, say I train AI on Disney images, then ask for a princess. It provides a drawing of a princess that looks like a Disney artist could have drawn it, but isn't actually a Disney character. Could this be trademark infringement? I would say no, citing Anastasia as evidence.