AI generations can be copyrighted now - on one condition

Content generated by artificial intelligence - including AI writers like ChatGPT and image-generating tools like DALL-E 2 - can now be copyrighted if they meet certain criteria, according to the US Copyright Office.

Until now, the Copyright Office has only considered human-generated work for copyright applications, however, in a shocking turn of events it will now consider AI-generated content so long as a significant proportion of the work was also carried out by a human.

In a Statement of policy (opens in new tab) published earlier this month, the Office's Director Shira Perlmutter wrote: "In the case of works containing AI-generated material, the Office will consider whether the AI contributions are the result of ‘mechanical reproduction’ or instead of an author's ‘own original mental conception, to which [the author] gave visible form.’"

Copyrighted AI material

Perlmutter describes that the analysis would be on a “case-by-case” basis in order to assess ...