It truly is the most wonderful privilege to be able to share my creations with others, and to hear everyone’s interpretations in return. Closing my senior year with a solo exhibition melding all the work I’ve done over the past four years among family, friends, and professors was an experience I’ll never forget. The invaluable support of the art department allowed me to be the first art-degree-earning student at the University of Miami to combine IP law with art/art history for my Studio Art Honors Thesis. Attending the University of Miami for undergrad continues to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made—the school has facilitated and nurtured my interdisciplinary education in ways I never imagined possible. This thesis is but one example.

My paper enters a timely conversation regarding fair use for AI-art-generators, with a specific focus on the fourth factor of potential market harm. I ultimately weigh in favor of an affirmative fair use finding for the use of copyrighted images by AI developers at the algorithmic training stage. My research and lived experiences have led me to conclude that human-made art serves a distinct market function than AI-generated art which favors a finding of fair use—a precedent set forth in the landmark case Campbell v Acuff-Rose Music. Such is the “consciousness of art,” wherein human-made art distinguishes itself from its AI-generated counterpart by invoking the identity, ideation, and intent of the artist, forging unparalleled connections between artist and viewer and (on the whole) immunizing it from the threat of emerging technologies. Inspired by the social and legal responses to the advent of photography in the 19th-20th century, my paper addresses the costly implications of rejecting a fair use defense in favor of permission-based licensing systems to copyright law’s ultimate goal of promoting creative progress. To learn more, the paper is due to be published later this spring.