This week’s process post touches on the subject of what text actually is and who or what the author is. Looking at the essay I just wrote about AI and how it affects content creation, this is a very interesting topic. Does an AI count as an author? Can it ever?
A text isn’t just something you read anymore; it includes things such as emojis and memes. It also may not be in the standard form of words and lettering; text is also part of format and design. There is a stark difference between text in Comic Sans and text in Times New Roman. The same goes for authors. If you add a caption to a meme, have you become the author or an additional author of the work? What if you simply changed the brightness or hue of the image or text? It becomes harder and harder as there is no clear line for these things.
On a slightly different topic, if we talk about ownership, it used to be pretty straightforward: whatever or whoever owns the item or text has the rights to it. But that’s not really the case with digital text anymore, as it can be easily copied and words changed. There is no clear line between sharing and remixing content, as remixing is, in a sense, creating. How does copyright even fit into this?
Publishers have an even harder time. As social media has become the norm and popular, there is a massive shift away from companies creating media to individuals creating media. It’s so crazy to think that everyone with a phone who has taken a photo or sent a tweet is technically a content creator with their own media. Although they made it, they might not have the full rights to it because of its prevalence on different media. How does copyright or personal rights affect this? so many questions.
Wondering about these has given me a fresh perspective on things. Even though it gave me a bit of a headache, It’s this kind of thinking that makes you question where the internet and AI are heading.
