Can Outputs From Generative AI Be Protected By Copyright?

There are currently important legal and policy discussions ongoing in numerous territories about whether the outputs from generative AI should be protected by copyright.

If such outputs do not attract copyright, and can therefore be copied at liberty, their value (particularly for the creative industries) is likely to be significantly diminished. If they do attract copyright, however, how does this affect traditional creative processes? We have seen actors' strikes in Hollywood, for example, largely based around the concern that the advent of AI will devalue or even eliminate the need for human creatives.

It is important to understand that this is a different question to that of whether the output from generative AI infringes the rights of others, which we explore in another article. A work could, in theory, both infringe copyright and benefit from copyright itself. We also consider elsewhere whether inventions created by AI can be protected by patents.