AI Imitating Artist ‘Style’ Drives Call to Rethink Copyright Law

The rise of generative artificial intelligence models that can create graphic, textual, or even audio outputs at a user’s request led lawmakers this month to ask whether an artist’s style can be protected as intellectual property. The answer, for now, appears to be no.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) asked during a May hearing on the intersection of AI and copyright law whether pop star Taylor Swift would have any recourse if a program created music that imitated her style without lifting her lyrics or composition.

That wouldn’t implicate copyright law in the US, according to witness and Latham & Watkins ...