Federal judge rules art generated purely by AI cannot be copyrighted

According to a federal judge’s ruling on Aug. 18, art and media generated purely by artificial intelligence (AI) do not fall under copyright protection

The ruling concerns Stephen Thaler, who attempted to register a piece of AI-generated artwork with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2018. The office denied his copyright application because the work lacked human authorship. This, in turn, led Thaler to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Copyright Office and its top official, Shira Perlmutter, in 2022.

Thaler argued that he was the author of the computer system that generated the artwork and that copyright over its output should be transferred to him accordingly. However, the judge’s ruling found that the Copyright Office “did not err in denying the copyright registration application” because the non-human work was never under copyright at all.

Furthermore, the judge stated that the past expansion of copyright to new forms of media is irrelevant in this context, as all past forms of media have had a “guiding human hand.” The judge also denied that the term “author” in copyright law extends beyond human authors.

The judge acknowledged that AI could produce more complex cases that will determine how much human input is necessary to obtain copyright over an AI-generated work. They added that the extent of copyright protection over AI works is yet to be determined, as is the originality of works by systems trained on existing media.

Case could help shape AI landscape

Thaler’s case stands distinct from many previous lawsuits that primarily focused on whether AI companies have unlawfully used works under copyright.

Comedian and author Sarah Silverman notably sued OpenAI and Meta over copyright infringement via their AI tools in July, while the New York Times considered similar action against OpenAI around Aug. 16. Three artists also filed suits against Stability AI and other firms in January. None of the above cases have reached a definite outcome.

Outside of the legal system, YouTube has announced plans to use AI for copyright enforcement of music. Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has demanded regulation around AI as part of an ongoing writers’ strike.

Future developments could have implications for the crypto sector. Many NFT generators, such as Binance, ChainGPT, StarryAI, and NightCafe, rely heavily on AI tools. Regardless of whether lawsuits directly target the NFT space, AI services’ availability and legality could significantly impact the options of NFT platforms and creators.

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