Can You Copyright What AI Makes? Mostly Not — Here's Where the Line Is
Here is a question that sounds trivial and isn’t. You open an image generator, type a careful prompt, tweak it twenty times, and get a picture you’re rather proud of. Do you own it? Most people assume yes — you did the work, you had the idea, you pressed the button. In the United States, the answer is a flat no: you own the copyright to precisely none of the AI-generated image, and that has real…
The question of whether one can copyright works created by AI is a complex one, with no clear answer. In the United States, the answer is that AI-generated works are not eligible for copyright protection, as copyright law requires a human author. This means that even if you create an image using an AI generator and put significant effort into refining it, you do not own the copyright to that image.
However, the situation is not entirely black and white. In the UK, the rules are different and are set to change. The UK courts consider human contributions to an AI-assisted work, such as your own words, editing, and selection, as potentially copyrightable. This creates a gray area where the specific line between what can be copyrighted and what cannot is not universally clear.
The core principle in the US is that copyright protects "original works of authorship" created by humans. This has been consistently upheld by the US Copyright Office and courts, as seen in the case of Stephen Thaler, who attempted to register an image generated by his AI system, the "Creativity Machine," but was rejected. The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, leaving the human-authorship requirement in place.
Despite this, there are still ways in which you can protect your work. If you contribute your own human expression, such as writing text, composing music, or creating original drawings, these contributions are still protected by copyright law. Additionally, if you use AI-generated elements as part of a larger work and arrange or edit them in a meaningful way, those human contributions can be protected.
For example, Kris Kashtanova's comic "Zarya of the Dawn" successfully protected the original story and arrangement of AI-generated images and text.
In summary, while AI-generated works are generally not eligible for copyright protection in the US, human contributions to those works can still be protected. Understanding where the line falls is crucial for anyone working with AI in creative projects.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
