No Human Involvement? No Copyright

Federal Judge Rules that AI-Generated Content Is Not Copyrightable

Last Friday, a federal judge issued the United States' first opinion that AI content generated autonomously without human involvement is not copyrightable under United States copyright law.

Plaintiff Stephen Thaler developed an artificial intelligence he dubbed the "Creativity Machine," which, in turn, created a work titled "A Recent Entrance to Paradise," depicted below. Thaler attempted to register the copyright in "A Recent Entrance to Paradise," listing the Creativity Machine as the author and claiming that he should own copyright under the work for hire doctrine as the owner of the Creativity Machine. The United States Copyright Office denied registration because it determined that "A Recent Entrance to Paradise" lacked human authorship. Thaler filed two requests for reconsideration with the Copyright Office and then ultimately appealed to federal court when those two requests were denied.