DC Circuit Holds That AI Systems Are Not “Authors” for Purposes of Copyright

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities advance, courts and the U.S. Copyright Office have grappled with the issue of who, or what—if anyone—owns the copyrights in works generated by AI systems. Fundamental questions have focused on whether copyright requires human authorship and, if so, whether works created solely through the use of AI possess sufficient human authorship to merit copyright protection.

In Thaler v. Perlmutter, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unequivocally answered this question. The DC Circuit held that human authorship is required for copyright protection in the United States, thus affirming the Copyright Office’s longstanding position that the Copyright Act requires all work to be authored by a human being. Applying this rule, the DC Circuit affirmed the denial of an application seeking to register a copyright claim in a work of visual art created solely by AI.

Read more on Thaler v. Perlmutter here.