Legal and Ethical Limits of Using AI in Commercial Imagery
The legal limits of AI in commercial imagery depend on three factors: copyright and image rights over what is generated, the transparency owed to the public, and the licence terms of each tool. Professional use requires checking all three before publishing any piece.
What legal risks does AI carry in commercial imagery?
Legal risks concentrate in a few areas: intellectual property infringement, misuse of a person’s likeness, misleading advertising and breach of licence terms. Each one can affect the brand that publishes the piece, not just whoever produced it. That is why an AI-generated image should be treated like any other campaign asset, with traceability and prior review.
A typical case: an agency generates the background of an ad with AI, and the result clearly reproduces the recognisable style of an illustrator, or includes a protected element such as a partial logo. Liability towards the claimant usually falls on the advertiser, and whether it can be passed on to the supplier depends on what the contract says.
AI regulation is advancing unevenly across jurisdictions, and several rules are still being implemented. If the campaign runs in several markets, the prudent approach is to apply the strictest standard among those involved and consult a legal adviser before launching, because this article is not a substitute for that advice.
Copyright and ownership of generated work
Ownership is the most uncertain area. In several jurisdictions a creative human contribution is required for a work to be protected, so an image produced from a simple text prompt may not have protection of its own. For a brand, this means it may be unable to stop a third party from reusing that piece.
The practical consequence is to distinguish between assets that must be exclusive and assets that are expendable. A logo, a mascot or the main image of a product line deserve a process where human authorship is clear and documentable: sketches, modelling, composition and retouching. A generic background in an ephemeral piece can tolerate greater risk.
Also review what the tool’s terms say about commercial use, assignment of rights and training on your files. Some licences limit use depending on the plan purchased. Always keep the terms in force on the date of generation, because they can change and you should be able to show under which terms each image was created.
What you cannot do with AI in marketing
Some practices cause serious problems regardless of the country. Knowing what you cannot do with AI in marketing avoids having to pull campaigns that have already been paid for. The clearest cases are these:
- Reproducing the image, voice or likeness of a real person without their consent, whether famous or anonymous.
- Deliberately imitating a specific artist’s work or including third-party brands and logos.
- Showing a product with performance, finishes or results it does not have, presenting it as real.
- Fabricating testimonials, reviews or customer photos that never existed.
- Feeding an external tool with confidential material or third-party rights-protected material without authorisation.
The product point is especially sensitive for manufacturers. A generated image can make a material look better or invent a construction detail that the technical datasheet does not support. That comes close to misleading advertising. In these cases, a 3D render built from real product data provides a verifiable basis that free generation does not offer.
Transparency and labelling of synthetic content
Transparency is a growing requirement in AI regulation and an expectation of clients. Various rules and advertising platforms are starting to require that synthetic or manipulated content be identified, especially when it could be mistaken for a real image of people, events or places.
Not every piece needs the same treatment. A clearly artistic illustration hardly deceives anyone; a photorealistic image of a building not yet built, presented without context, can. A useful criterion is to ask whether a reasonable viewer could believe that what they see exists as it appears.
It is advisable to set an internal policy: which pieces are labelled, with what wording, and where the process record is kept. If you work with suppliers, ask them to declare which parts of an image come from AI. A workflow where AI is integrated in a controlled way, like the one described in this analysis of AI in professional image production, makes that traceability easier.
Ethics of using AI in images
The ethics of using AI in images go beyond what the law requires today. They include the origin of the data the models were trained on, the impact on the professionals who created the source works, and the biases a model reproduces when depicting people, ages, bodies or environments.
For a brand, ethical risk is also reputational. A legally defensible campaign can provoke rejection if the public perceives that it replaced photographers or illustrators without saying so, or if the generated models show only a single stereotyped profile. Reviewing the result with a critical eye is part of responsible commercial use.
A sensible practice is to reserve AI for tasks where it adds value without replacing anyone: exploring ideas, mood variations, support in retouching. The final decision and responsibility must remain human, something that takes concrete form in professional control of AI generation throughout the whole process.
How to reduce risk before publishing
Reducing risk is a matter of process, not intuition. Before publishing a piece made with AI, a professional team should be able to answer a few questions with documents, not from memory.
- Which tool was used, under which licence and under what commercial terms.
- What source material was provided and whether you hold the rights to it.
- Whether any recognisable person, brand or work appears.
- Whether the image faithfully represents the product or service.
- Whether it should be labelled as generated or modified content.
Add specific clauses to supplier contracts: a declaration of AI use, warranties on the origin of the material and allocation of liability in the event of claims. If something is unclear, it is reasonable to ask the supplier before hiring and to validate doubtful cases with legal counsel.
Imagine a case with round numbers: a campaign with 20 images. If you review the five questions above for each one, you carry out 100 brief checks before publishing, a minimal effort compared with the cost of pulling the whole campaign because of a single problematic piece.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use AI-generated images in a commercial campaign?
Yes, as long as the tool’s licence allows it, no third-party rights are infringed and the image does not mislead about the product. Check the terms in force and keep a record of the process.
Do I have to disclose that an image was made with AI?
It depends on the jurisdiction and the platform where it is published. As a general rule, it is advisable to indicate it when the image could be mistaken for a real photograph of people, events or places.
Who is liable if an AI image infringes third-party rights?
Often the party that publishes it, that is, the brand or the agency. How much can be passed on to the supplier depends on the contract, so it is advisable to agree warranties and allocation of liability in advance.