元宇宙中虚拟数字人生成内容的可版权性研究——基于与人工智能生成内容对比的视角

Virtual Digital Humans in a Metaverse——A Comparative Perspective with That of AI-generated Contents

随着元宇宙技术的发展,虚拟数字人将成为新的“创作”主体,并对传统版权制度提出了严峻挑战。同人工智能一样,元宇宙中虚拟数字人生成的内容属于文学、艺术和科学领域且能以一定形式表现,符合“形式”上的“作品”要件。那么,可版权性与否的关键就落在对于独创性要件的证立上。判断虚拟数字人生成内容的独创性,应秉持主观主义标准,重点考察其生成内容的过程中是否包含个性化创作空间。元宇宙中虚拟数字人生成内容的过程兼具机器智能与人类智慧,有别于单纯的人类或AI“创作”,本质是一种人机协作。当下ChatGPT4.0等大语言模型及提示工程技术的发展迅猛,人机协作模式正在逐渐替代单纯的人类或AI“创作”成为主要创作方式。人机协作模式下,只要来源于人类智慧的个性化创作空间不会被机器智能所侵蚀,那么虚拟数字人生成的内容就符合独创性要件,具有可版权性。

With the development of metauniverse technologies,virtual digital humans are bound to become the new‘creative’subjects and pose a serious challenge to the traditional copyright regime.Like artificial intelligence,the contents generated by virtual digital humans in the metaverse belong to the fields of literature,art and science and can be expressed in a certain form,which meets the requirements of a‘work’in terms of‘form’.The key to their copyrightability,then,lies in establishing the element of originality.To judge the originality of the contents generated by VDPs,the subjectivist criteria should be adhered to,focusing on whether or not the content generating process contains room for personalized creativity.The content generating process by virtual digital humans in the metaverse embodies both machine intelligence and human intelligence.Different from mere human or AI‘creation’,it is essentially a kind of human-computer collaboration.With the currently rapid development of ChatGPT4.0,other big language models and prompt engineering technology,the human-computer collaboration mode is gradually replacing the pure human or AI‘creation’as the main creation method.Under the human-computer collaboration mode,as long as the personalized creation space originating from human intelligence will not be eroded by machine intelligence,the contents generated by a virtual digital person meet the elements of originality and are copyrightable.