Is it the same if it’s a human doing the learning? If I spend my youth looking at art, I’d any work I then do “theft”?

When it comes to fan art of Disney characters, the legal position is "Disney could sue you for that, but chooses not to as suing fans would be bad PR, don't do anything commercial with it though or they'll sue you for sure"

So - yes, as I understand things it can indeed be illegal even if a human does the learning.

	▲	ndriscoll 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		If we're discussing ethics, copyright law is basically irrelevant. Copying the art from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs would get you sued, but no sane person thinks it's unethical. Everyone involved in making it has almost certainly been dead for a while now. It's ethically no different from copying the original story like Disney did.

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zwnow 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

If you copy an artists style with extreme precision without their consent, yes.

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namdnay 3 days ago | parent [-]

I don’t think that’s what we were talking about here - it was using AI to replace graphic designers at startups

	▲	zwnow 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Which is an issue. I dont think you understand the whole point.