Thinking of using AI Images in your marketing communications? Here’s why you should be careful
WRITTEN BY: ALISON JOSHI, DIRECTOR OF JWJ DESIGN
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the creative industry, offering businesses quick and cost-effective ways to generate images. From advertising campaigns to social media posts, AI-generated visuals are becoming more common. However, while AI tools can produce stunning imagery, businesses need to be mindful of copyright ambiguity and resolution / scaling limitations.
Copyright: Who really owns AI-generated images?
One of the biggest concerns surrounding AI-generated images is intellectual property (IP) ownership. Traditional images; whether created by a photographer, illustrator, or designer, have clear copyright protections. But with AI, the legal landscape is much murkier depending on the platform that you use to generate your images.
Many AI tools generate images based on vast datasets of existing artwork, often scraped from the internet without clear permissions. As a result:
– AI-generated images may not be eligible for copyright protection, as they lack direct human authorship. In the UK and the US, copyright law typically protects work created by humans, not machines.
– Some AI platforms explicitly state that users do not own the images outright, meaning they could be free for others to use as well.
This creates a major issue for businesses: if no one can legally claim ownership of an AI-generated image, there is no legal protection against someone else using the same image in their marketing.
Potential copyright infringement
Many AI models are trained on copyrighted images, meaning that AI-generated artwork could resemble existing copyrighted works. If an AI-generated image closely mimics an artist’s style or a recognisable brand’s content, businesses could face legal challenges.
Resolution limitations
Businesses must also consider image resolution, scalability and final file output. While AI tools can generate high-quality visuals for digital use, they are often not suitable for large-scale printing due to the 72dpi resolution.
While this is fine for social media and web content, it becomes a problem when scaling up for print and images need to be around 200-300dpi. If you are outputting your image at A3 size but scaling it up to A2 then your resolution will only be 150dpi – resulting in a poor quality image with visible pixelation.
How to safely use AI-generated images in marketing
If your business wants to use AI-generated images while avoiding legal and quality issues, consider the following:
– Check the terms of use for the AI tool you’re using – some platforms allow commercial use, while others do not.
– Where possible, modify AI-generated images by incorporating human-made design elements to create something unique.
– AI images work well for social media posts, website graphics, and digital ads where resolution requirements are lower.
– Avoid using AI-generated visuals for large-format print materials unless you can confirm high enough resolution.
– Work with a professional designer who can utilise the AI software, whilst combining their software expertise to generate something unique.
– Designers can also enhance AI-generated content by refining details, upscaling images properly, and ensuring they work within the brand guidelines.
AI-generated images offer exciting possibilities for businesses, but they currently come with significant limitations (human features!) and risks, until copyright laws and resolution issues are addressed then please think carefully about only using AI imagery.
Anything human-generated is going to be much more original and distinctive for your business brand image.
