AI Art Copyright Ruling Invites Future Battles Over Human Inputs

A Washington, D.C., federal court’s first-of-its-kind ruling that artwork generated by artificial intelligence can’t receive the same copyright protections afforded to human-created art portends more complicated cases as AI tools continue to disrupt creative industries.

Although US District Judge Beryl Howell reiterated in her ruling last week that “human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright,” she hinted at “challenging questions” arising when artwork includes a greater level of human input into the AI-generated content.

Howell upheld a decision by the US Copyright Office to deny a copyright registration for Stephen Thaler, a computer scientist whose generative ...