If something is in the public domain, and you create something new with it, you have the rights to the new work, there isn’t any sort of alike-licensing on public domain works in most-if-not-all jurisdictions.
This is why music engravers can sell entire books of classical sheet music from *public domain* works. They become the owners of that specific expression. (Their arrangement, font choice, page layout, etc)
If the AI content is public domain, and the work it generates is incorporated into some other work, the entity doing the incorporation owns the work. It’s not permanently tainted or something as far as I know.
This is why music engravers can sell entire books of classical sheet music from *public domain* works. They become the owners of that specific expression. (Their arrangement, font choice, page layout, etc)
If the AI content is public domain, and the work it generates is incorporated into some other work, the entity doing the incorporation owns the work. It’s not permanently tainted or something as far as I know.