AI Art Copyright Stays Doubtful After Appeals Court Argument (1)

A DC Circuit panel struggled with both the idea of granting copyright protection for AI-produced works and a computer scientist’s framing of his case to do so during oral argument Thursday.

Ryan Abbott of Brown Neri Smith & Khan LLP, the attorney for plaintiff Stephen Thaler, argued nothing in the law restricts nonhuman authorship and noted corporations can own copyrights. But the three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit appeared dubious of his position and questioned whether Thaler properly raised an alternative theory that he created the work in question with his machine, rather than ...