If you put something that is copyrighted through a mechanical transformation process it has the same copyright. For instance a video of a movie retains the copyright status of the movie (as well as probably being an illegal copy itself) even if you added camera shake and audience coughing sounds. So there's not an issue with things like this.

> How will the USPTO draw a legal distinction between AI-generated and GPU-generated?

Patents and trademarks are not copyrights. The U.S. Copyright office handles copyrights, the USPTO handles the other two.

In the spirit of your question, though, the concern predates AI.

Programs that you can use a stylus to draw with - in a similar manner as pen/ink and paper - have been around a long time, and are getting better.

Let the definition of human art be human effort put into creating something. If I put "etymology of the word art" into Google I get "The word art comes from the Latin noun ars (meaning practical skill, craft, or work of art)."

If I spend an hour drawing something in a program - strokes in the same exact manner as physical paint and canvas, but digitally adjustable and editable afterward - this is still art. But it's hard to prove that from just the output file alone. It's even worse for 3d model creation - someone who painstakingly molds/creates a 3d model in Blender is definitely doing art, even if there is no physical artifact until it's printed or projected.

Perhaps art programs will need to start authenticating input devices and movement sensors and recording their stream during the artistic process, and including that as part of the output file. This will only be worse if you want to create art but not train AI. The only solution to that is not create digital art.