Copyright Office Solidifies Stance On The Copyrightability Of AI-Generated Works

Earlier this year, the U.S. Copyright Office released part two of its artificial intelligence (AI) report addressing the copyrightability of outputs created using generative AI. This new report is largely consistent with the Copyright Office's earlier registration decisions and guidance. The central question the Copyright Office poses regarding the protectability of AI outputs remains whether the AI tool was used merely as an assisting instrument or whether the traditional elements of authorship were conceived and executed by the tool rather than a human. The Copyright Office provides more explanation as to its reasoning and provides some additional guidance on when works may be protectable despite having been created with the aid of AI. However, it continues to set a high bar to meet the human-authorship requirement, and the exact boundary between protectable and unprotectable works remains undefined.