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ARTICLE · 24 FEBRUARY 2025

Copyrightability Of AI Outputs: U.S. Copyright Office Analyzes Human Authorship Requirement

Jones Day
Jones Day
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Jones Day

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Users of generative AI tools are often wowed by the content that these tools create in response to inputted prompts—but significant questions remain as to whether these outputs are copyrightable...

United StatesIntellectual Property
Edouard Fortunet
Edouard Fortunet
Jakob Guhn
Jakob Guhn
Carl Kukkonen III
Carl Kukkonen III
Ka-On Li
Ka-On Li
Anna Raimer
Anna Raimer
Rebecca Swindells
Rebecca Swindells
Emily J. Tait
Emily J. Tait
Nicole Newman
Nicole Newman
Ernest (Ernie) Oleksy
Ernest (Ernie) Oleksy
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In Short

The Situation: Artificial intelligence ("AI") raises unique challenges in the context of copyright law. To address and clarify various issues arising at the intersection of AI and copyright, the U.S. Copyright Office ("Office") is in the process of releasing its Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Report ("Report"). Part One of the Report came out in July 2024 and concluded that AI has created an "urgent need" for a federal law addressing digital replicas or "deepfakes" of persons' appearances or voices. The Office released Part Two of the Report in January 2025 and is set to release Part Three later this year.

The Development: Part Two of the Report focuses on the copyrightability of AI outputs in view of the human authorship requirement. The Office provided additional guidance on how a work containing AI-generated material may satisfy that requirement as long as a human author has sufficient control over the expressive elements of the work.

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