WHEATON, Ill. (WLS) — One local artist was shocked when he saw what looked like one of his drawings circulating online.

Though a caricature carried Jason Seiler’s signature, it wasn’t his creation. The I-Team is delving into what legal measures he can take to defend his career and earnings.

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“I’ve been doing it all my life since I was a little kid,” Seiler said.

The Wheaton illustrator has spent his life creating caricatures for magazines, books, films, and clients worldwide.

“I draw and I paint seven days a week, basically,” Seiler said.

But with AI, he says, his unique work he has spent years perfecting can now be faked in minutes.

“It was something that used to take me a week to accomplish, a skill I’ve honed over my lifetime to provide for my family, and now they can do it in moments. It’s outrageous. It’s frightening. It’s wrong,” Seiler expressed.

Seiler mentioned that an online fan sent him the controversial image, explaining it was generated by an AI application. Though not his original work, the AI replicated his artistic style and even signed it with his name.

“Not only does it mimic my art, trying to produce new work in my style, but it even signs as ‘Jason Seiler,'” he remarked. “It makes me want to tear my hair out. I find it offensive. It demeans all the years spent developing my skill as an artist. This is my source of income, how I support myself.”

What actions can he take in response? Do he and other artists possess any legal leverage to oppose this? ABC7 I-Team Consumer Investigator Jason Knowles sought answers.

Joshua Sarnoff, an intellectual property expert from the DePaul University College of Law, explains that for an artist to file a lawsuit against a person, they need to identify who input the data into the AI. Suing the AI tool’s creators would prove even more challenging, as the resulting reproduction might qualify as fair use.

“Who are you going to sue? First, do you know what the AI is that helped a person to generate it? Second, do you know who the person is, who did generate it? Because if you don’t have someone to sue, you don’t really have right to enforce,” Sarnoff said. “It makes people who are not experts able to generate content who never could. That’s a wonderful thing. We like greater creativity. At the same time, it also makes them much more easily able to copy the styles or perhaps, actually, just copy the exact works made by other people.”

Sarnoff says Seiler’s case highlights new challenges for copyright law.

“It is his style. And again, the question is, is a style itself copyrightable? And the answer is maybe, maybe not. It’s a tough question. And it always goes back to, what was the work that this is claimed to be substantially similar to? He has not done a character of this person,” Sarnoff said.

Sarnoff says the public may get more answers once we learn the final outcome of two big AI cases in California. Both cases were filed against artificial intelligence companies and involve authors alleging AI copied their work. So far, these courts have cited fair use in favor of the AI companies, but the decisions are expected to be appealed to higher courts.

“So, if an artist can prove that down the line, right, this AI took my job. I’m no longer worth what I used to be. Would they have a case against the AI companies?” Knowles asked.

Sarnoff responded, “I don’t think so. But that’s precisely what these cases are trying to figure out.”

Seiler said, “A lot of jobs have been replaced. And it’s scary for me because it’s literally my livelihood. It’s what I depend on. That’s what I’ve worked my entire life, to be a professional illustrator.”

The Trump administration has said that overly restrictive regulations can stifle AI innovation and development.

So, on one hand there is the risk of people losing work from AI. On the other hand, the use of AI can help lead to the creation of more content and more ideas.