Artwork Created By Artificial Intelligence (AI) Not Eligible For Copyright

In 2018, Steven Thaler filed an application to register a copyright for a computer-generated image created autonomously by a computer algorithm, the "Creativity Machine". (We previously wrote about Mr. Thaler's unsuccessful attempt to obtain a patent naming an AI machine as the inventor.) The image, entitled "A Recent Entrance to Paradise," represents a "simulated near-death experience" in which an algorithm reprocesses pictures to create hallucinatory images in creating a fictional narrative about the afterlife.

The application was refused by the U.S. Copyright Office Review Board because it lacked human authorship. After receiving a second request for reconsideration from Thaler, the Board confirmed on February 14, 2022 that human authorship is a prerequisite to copyright protection in the United States and that the image could therefore not be registered.