According to Reuters, the U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether art created by artificial intelligence should be eligible for copyright protection — a landmark case that could reshape how creativity is defined in the digital age. The petition, filed by computer scientist Stephen Thaler, challenges the U.S. Copyright Office’s decision to deny protection for artwork made by his AI system, DABUS.
The legal battle began after Thaler attempted to register an image produced by DABUS (short for “Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience”) as an original piece of artwork, listing the AI as the sole creator. The U.S. Copyright Office rejected the application in 2022, stating that only works made by humans are eligible for copyright protection.
Thaler argues that such restrictions could limit innovation and unfairly exclude the growing field of AI-driven creativity. His lawyers claim that creativity should not depend solely on “the species of the creator,” but on the originality and outcome of the process itself.
Legal experts say the case, Thaler v. Perlmutter, represents the first major Supreme Court challenge concerning AI authorship rights. If the Court decides to hear it, the ruling could set a precedent for how ownership, credit, and revenue from AI-generated works are handled in the future.
Supporters of the current copyright stance argue that extending rights to AI would disrupt existing intellectual property laws and create new enforcement challenges. Others believe it’s time to update legal definitions of “authorship” to reflect the realities of generative AI tools like Midjourney, DALL·E, and ChatGPT, which can produce original-looking content with minimal human input.
If accepted by the Supreme Court, a ruling is expected to have global implications, influencing similar legal debates in the European Union, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For now, creators, startups, and tech firms are closely watching the case, as it could decide whether the next generation of art and innovation will belong to humans — or to their machines.
The decision on AI copyright may redefine the limits of creativity and ownership in the digital era. Whether the U.S. Supreme Court chooses to hear Thaler’s case or not, the conversation around artificial intelligence and human authorship has already begun shaping the future of intellectual property law.
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