Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated artwork can't be protected by Copyright, ruled US court Judge
artificial intelligence (AI) cannot be subject to copyright, according to reports. The judge's decision came on Friday within the context of a legal case involving the US Copyright Office's denial of copyright to Stephen Thaler for an AI-generated image crafted using the Creativity Machine algorithm he had developed.
Thaler had pursued copyright protection for the image, intending it to be categorized as a «work-for-hire» for the possessor of the Creativity Machine.
This classification would have attributed authorship to the creator of the work while identifying Thaler as the owner of the artwork. However, his attempts to secure copyright were consistently turned down.
The judge drew parallels with prior legal precedents, such as the famous monkey selfie case, to emphasize this point.
Conversely, Judge Howell cited an instance in which a woman compiled a book from notebooks containing «words she believed were dictated to her» by a supernatural «voice,» deeming it eligible for copyright protection.
Judge Howell did acknowledge the emergence of uncharted territory in the realm of copyright due to the increasing integration of AI into the creative process. She observed that as artists increasingly leverage AI as a creative tool, intricate questions arise regarding the extent of human involvement necessary to grant copyright to AI-generated art.
She further noted that AI models frequently draw from pre-existing works during their training.
This ruling by the federal judge coincides with a backdrop of a 100-day-long writers strike, during which concerns have risen regarding the potential utilization of generative artificial intelligence to entirely compose scripts. However, the foundation of intellectual property law has long
