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ARTICLE · 05 AUGUST 2022

Can A Robot's Artwork Be Copyrighted?

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On November 2, 2020, Ankit Sahni, a lawyer in India, succeeded in registering an AI-generated artwork titled "Suryast" with the Indian Copyright Office (ROC No. A-135120/2020).

CanadaIntellectual Property
Kristél Kriel
Kristél Kriel
Adam Lakusta
Adam Lakusta
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Artificial intelligence (AI) may not have reached the level of Skynet, but machines are already creating artwork autonomously.

On November 2, 2020, Ankit Sahni, a lawyer in India, succeeded in registering an AI-generated artwork titled "Suryast" with the Indian Copyright Office (ROC No. A-135120/2020). The authors listed by the Copyright Office are Sahni and the RAGHAV Artificial Intelligence Painting App (RAGHAV).

But can AI qualify as a co-author of a copyrighted work in Canada? We may already have the answer to that question – although it hasn't been tested in court.

While Canada Consults, CIPO Weighs In

From July 16 – September 17, 2021, the Government of Canada conducted a consultation regarding the modernization of Canada's copyright framework, including whether to attribute authorship to AI. During the consultation, a group of prominent Canadian copyright scholars recommended that AI artwork be kept in the public domain.

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