NO EASY ANSWERS
Globally, the debate is intensifying.
In 2024, more than 10,000 actors, musicians and authors around the world signed a public statement warning that unlicensed use of their work to train generative AI poses a “major, unjust threat” to their livelihoods.
The number of signatories later grew to 50,000, including novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, actress Julianne Moore and singer-songwriter Kate Bush.
While their demand to stop unlicensed AI training altogether appears unlikely to gain traction, amid the international race for AI dominance, others have suggested people should treat creative knowledge as a public good and collectively fund it like public broadcasting or infrastructure.
For Lin the artist, his experience has reshaped how he works.
Rather than rejecting AI, he had embraced it early, believing the technology had to be mastered, not feared.
Now a practising designer and university lecturer, he has watched entire courses disappear as AI replaced once-essential technical skills.
Today, he is known for AI-generated digital art that remixes modern consumer culture with Chinese aesthetics – hyper-realistic, imaginative works that sometimes resemble fan art of major brands.
Some of those brands have even approached him directly, paying to use his artwork for their marketing materials or to generate more conceptual artwork for them.
After his lawsuit, fellow creatives have begun seeking his advice on how to protect their own work.
As China pushes ahead with AI as a national strategy and millions of AI-generated creations flood the market, the rulings emerging from its courts may offer an early glimpse into how ownership, originality and creativity could be redefined – not just in China, but around the world.
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