Blurring boundaries: Piracy, algorithmic authorship and creativity among designers in Kenya

The traditional notions of authorship and copyright in the Kenyan design industry have been significantly disrupted by the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. There is an exponential increase in visual data, such as photographs and typefaces, on digital platforms. This has been enabled by the click, like, and share culture, providing fertile ground for AI developers to mine and train generative models. Designers generate creative outputs from this data. Adapting these innovations has raised difficult questions on authorship and originality. Consequently, this study explores AI’s impact on the design process through the lens of copyright law. Interrogating whether AI-generated photographs and typefaces can qualify for protection under existing legal structures. The analysis is situated in the lived experiences of designers who frequently use AI tools in their daily crafts and the challenges they face. The research method is two-pronged, with an empirical analysis and qualitative data from interviews with practising designers. Two questions guide the study: 1) Is AI capable of independent creativity? 2) Who is considered an algorithmic author? The paper proposes considerations for reforming legal standards to address the significance of algorithmic authorship.