Creations generated by artificial intelligence in literary and artistic property: the new death of the author?

The development of generative artificial intelligence models is at the heart of two important debates in terms of copyright: firstly, does the use of previous works as training data constitute an infringement of copyright? The issue is utterly sensitive as creators fear a negative effect of these tools on their future careers. Secondly, what regime is applicable to "outputs", more precisely to textual, visual, musical or audiovisual contents generated by artificial intelligence? Are these works without an author? Are they protected by an intellectual property right, and if so, under what conditions and for whose benefit? These highly topical questions find a particular echo in the writings of the French semiologist and philosopher Roland Barthes (1915-1980), notably in his famous article entitled "The Death of the Author". The objectives of this study are, firstly, to present the questions raised by generative artificial intelligence in copyright law (mainly under the prism of French law, but also with regard to Romanian law, European law and court decisions taken on the subject in different countries), and, secondly, to determine to what extent the arguments developed by Roland Barthes, leading to relativising the role of the author, could contribute to current debates on this adaptation of copyright to generative artificial intelligence.