Generative AI and Worship Imagery

Many churches and congregational leaders have had plenty of experience finding imagery to put on the various screens used for worship: in the sanctuary, on Zoom, and via streaming platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

While online searching for imagery has become easier and easier, there is still the issue of getting copyright clearance for using images you find. If you are using the Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia, and are using a particular image in your worship space (e.g. your church sanctuary), you should be legally and ethically good to go.  Things get more difficult if you are live-streaming or re-broadcasting the service, and thereby extending your worship outside the confines of a particular worship space. 

Many churches have purchased licenses for live-streaming and this is good. When it comes to imagery, however, depending on your license, you might need to find additional permissions for using art and photography. Ethically you should be finding the original source of an image and request permission to use the image from that artist or photographer. 

Many image searches on various web platforms will locate the particular image or theme you're seeking, and you may be prompted to look at the source. In many cases the source is simply someone else who found and posted the image, who is not the originator of the image. This is where it gets time-consuming, tracking down the original source of a particular image, finding out how to contact that source, and then waiting for their permission. 

There is now a way through this!  The way is through image generation courtesy of AI (artificial intelligence) that is just recently widely available to anyone using major platforms like Google (Google slides will find and insert an image you want to use), Microsoft Edge, Canva, and others. Midjourney.io is another source, although this requires a subscription. 

Recently in my preaching I had a story to tell about a snowy drive through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and I wanted to find an image to illustrate the story.  Of course I did not have a photograph of this experience, since it was well before digital cameras were available, and I was driving, and alone. I wondered if midjourney.io could help.

I went to the site and entered in this command: "view from inside car, driver side, driving at night in snowstorm, lots of snow hitting windshield, mountain highway completely covered with snow, very dark, heavy snowfall visible, windshield wipers moving on windshield, visiblility near zero, no light outside" and here is the image I got.

An August ruling by a U.S. Court in Washington, D.C. ruled that imagery created by artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted. This image that I had the AI generate cannot be copyrighted. You can use it!

I have spent some time generating imagery to varous biblical stories and have received amazing results. I may well decide to offer lectionary-based imagery here through this blog. Saving you the time and resources of finding something you can legally, and freely use!