Using AI-made images in business materials

An AI image can look original and still carry problems. Run through this list before it goes on a website, flyer or shopfront.

Before you use the image

• Check what the tool's terms allow. Some terms set limits on how output can be used. OpenAI's, for one, bar users from representing that "Output was human-generated when it was not".¹ Read yours first. The page on reading ownership terms shows where to look.

• Don't assume you'll be the only one with it. OpenAI's terms warn that other users may receive similar output.¹ A rival could end up with something close.

• Know what ownership may look like. Wikipedia's summary of US Copyright Office guidance treats works whose expressive elements a machine decides as uncopyrightable. So a plain AI image may give you little to enforce.² The page on ownership of AI-made work has details.

Look for signs it copies something

• Logos and watermarks. Getty Images' US suit against Stability AI argues that the model infringes trade mark rights by "generating images with Getty's watermark". That is an allegation, not a ruling, but it is a reason to look closely at any AI image for logos or watermarks.²

• Famous characters. Wikipedia notes that "an AI may also produce infringing content in the form of novel works which incorporate fictional characters". A cartoon mascot that looks familiar is a red flag.²

• Near copies of a real picture. Models "may produce outputs that are virtually identical to images from their training set". Run a reverse image search on anything that will be a main visual.²

• Real artists' styles. Wikipedia says "an artist's overall style is generally not subject to copyright protection". That doesn't make a close imitation of a living artist a good idea, and the tool's own rules may still apply.²³

Use of the image

• Review it like any other content. OpenAI's terms put the job of judging output on you. Check hands, text, signs and anything that looks like a real product or place.¹

• Never show real people who didn't agree. Don't use an AI image to suggest a real person endorses you. This site doesn't explain how to make lookalikes.

• Keep a record. Save the prompt, the tool and its version, the date, and your edits. If someone complains, that file helps.

• Keep claims modest. Avoid saying you "own all rights". Credit the tool if its terms ask you to, and say plainly that an image was made with AI where that's relevant.

Where to read more

The tool's rules come first. Anthropic's terms, for example, bar use of its services "To infringe, misappropriate, or violate intellectual property or other legal rights".³ For output that looks like someone else's work, see when AI output looks too much like existing work. This page is general information, not legal advice.