In a major ruling on AI intellectual property rights, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell declared that AI-generated art cannot be protected by copyright. Stephen Thaler, the creator of the Creativity Machine algorithm, sued the U.S. Copyright Office after it declined his copyright requests for an image generated by his AI system.
Thaler claimed that the rejection was unjust, however, Judge Howell's view was the opposite. She wrote, "Human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright", delineating that work absent of human guidance has never been given a copyright nod. Nonetheless, she admitted that we are close to new challenges in copyright law, with more artists leveraging AI in their work. Thaler and his legal representation intend to appeal the decision. From cases against OpenAI and Meta to those against Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI, legal complaints around U.S. copyright laws and AI are rising. The future remains unclear as to how these laws will evolve with the escalating involvement of AI in creative pursuits.
The image in question:
Yes it could be. Thanks for highlighting this.