Ringling College of Art and Design’s AI Task Force is pleased to announce that the next guest expert in its speaker series will be Washington, D.C. copyright lawyer and legal author Mark Traphagen. On Monday, February 19, 2024 at 7 pm, Traphagen will present “Is the Algorithm the Author? Generative Artificial Intelligence, Copyright, and the Stakes for Creative Artists,” in the Larry R. Thompson Academic Center’s Morganroth Auditorium.
This lecture event is open to Ringling students, faculty, staff, and the general public, and is free to attend.
Drawing on his experiences during the last major revision of federal copyright law, Traphagen will discuss the important copyright law questions raised by generative AI, and how the way federal courts and Congress answer them will influence whether generative AI will assist—or compete with—the next generation of writers, composers, and artists.
Traphagen will also meet with students and faculty on Monday, Feb. 19 and Tuesday, Feb. 20 for workshops and Q&A on copyright, AI, and potential effects on creative artists.
Traphagen is a copyright lawyer who has played key roles in federal copyright legislation and international copyright treaties, and advised clients on World Trade Organization intellectual property disputes. He earned his first movie credit on filmmaker Michael Moore’s Academy Award-winning documentary Roger & Me, and since then has represented a wide range of creative artists and copyright owners including writers, songwriters, major music publishers, NBA and NHL teams, and the BBC. Mark teaches copyright and intellectual property law at George Washington University Law School and is a regular contributor to the legal treatise, Copyright Throughout the World. mark.traphagen@traphagenlaw.com
As interests and concerns about Artificial Intelligence flared world-wide, Ringling College of Art and Design rose to the challenge in the summer of 2023—creating an AI Task Force to research the scope of possibilities and potential challenges of using, working with, and learning from the artificial intelligence machines and software with a particular focus on artists, designers, and writers.
Faculty and staff from the College’s Creative Writing and Entertainment Design programs to the Library and Career Services all weighed in on how this new technology could affect their fields and departments. At the helm of the Task Force, Creative Writing faculty Rick Dakan guides the large project in his appointment as chair. Traphagen’s lecture is one in an on-going series of discussions around the onset and integration of AI.
