Interesting, so what happens when an AI creates art that would infringe on a human's copyright? Would AI art of Mickey Mouse be public domain, meaning AI could be the end of Disney's insane licensing fee?
Edit: Nevermind, turns out this article is just editorialized. It isn't public domain, it just isn't eligible for the AI's creator to copyright it if it's fully autonomous.
Mickey is actually entering the public domain next year. Finally. However, Disney is already trying to get around this by trademarking the shit out of Steamboat Willie.
I highly doubt that if you created a work that infringed on someone copyrighted works that you could release it as public domain to skirt around the rights of the holder. An AI generated work - eligible for copyright or not - would likely have the same rules applied to any other works if it infringes someone elses copyrighted work. I don't see why a court would give up someones claim to copyright just because a infringing work entered the public domain.
Not aware if this has been tested in court before or not though - seems unlikely that someone would try this. AI work does mean this is more likely to become a case at some point though. But I suspect there are many other battles that will be fought first.