Art created solely by artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted
Date: 2023-08-22 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: IN WORLD
Art and media created solely by artificial intelligence (AI) are not subject to copyright protection under a federal judge's August 18 ruling.
The decision concerns Stephen Thaler, who in 2018 attempted to register a work of art created by artificial intelligence with the US Copyright Office. The office rejected his copyright application because the work lacked human authorship. This, in turn, led Thaler to file a lawsuit in 2022 against the US Copyright Office and its top official, Shira Perlmutter.
Thaler claimed that he was the author of the computer system that generated the work of art, and that the copyright of its result should be assigned to him accordingly. However, the judge's ruling found that the Copyright Office "did not err in rejecting the copyright application" because a non-human work was never subject to copyright at all.
In addition, the judge stated that the past extension of copyright to new forms of media is irrelevant in this context, since all past forms of media had a "guiding human hand". The judge also denied that the term "author" in copyright law goes beyond human authors.
The judge acknowledged that AI could lead to more complex cases that would determine how much human input is needed to obtain copyright for an AI-generated work. They added that the degree of copyright protection for AI works remains to be determined, as does the originality of works by systems trained on existing media.
The case can help shape the AI landscape
Thaler's case differs from many previous lawsuits that primarily focused on whether artificial intelligence companies illegally used copyrighted works.
Comedian and writer Sarah Silverman notably sued OpenAI and Meta for copyright infringement with their AI tools in July, while The New York Times was considering similar action against OpenAI around August 16. Three artists also filed lawsuits against Stability AI and other firms in January. None of the above cases led to a definite result.
Outside of the legal system, YouTube has announced plans to use AI to protect music copyright. Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has demanded regulation of AI as part of an ongoing writers' strike.
Future events may have implications for the crypto sector. Many NFT generators such as Binance, ChainGPT, StarryAI, and NightCafe rely heavily on AI tools. Whether or not the lawsuits directly target the NFT space, the availability and legitimacy of AI services can significantly affect the ability of NFT platforms and creators.
