Generative AI triggers copyright lawsuits and cognitive concerns

The rapid advancement of generative AI is creating significant legal, social, and cognitive challenges. In Japan, a content production company named Sai has initiated a landmark lawsuit seeking 26 million yen in damages. The company alleges that a hair salon in Chiba Prefecture unauthorizedly reprocessed and published AI-generated images, while the defense argues that AI-generated works lack copyright protection.

The literary world is also seeing a surge in AI involvement. The Hayakawa SF Contest reported a massive spike in entries, exceeding 1,000 submissions, which has prompted new restrictions on entry numbers. Some authors, such as Kamome Ashizawa, have demonstrated the efficiency of the technology by producing and submitting 100 novels in just three weeks.

Beyond legal and creative disputes, experts are warning of “cognitive debt”—the degradation of human thinking and creativity caused by over-reliance on AI. Psychiatrist Shion Kabasawa suggests that to maintain true intelligence, humans must intentionally create mental “blank spaces” to allow for information integration and insight, rather than merely acting as passive recipients of AI-generated answers.