Boy, it does feel like artificial intelligence is the buzzword of the modern zeitgeist, doesn't it? AI is only getting more and more prolific, too, especially when it comes to easily being able to produce artwork - and that has left us with a lot of questions around who owns what it produces. Luckily, the US Copyright Office has now set the standard.
In a new statement of policy, the US copyrighting body outlines exactly what is and isn't covered by copyright. "A human may select or arrange AI-generated material in a sufficiently creative way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship," the policy reads. "Or an artist may modify material originally generated by AI technology to such a degree that the modifications meet the standard for copyright protection.
"In these cases, copyright will only protect the human-authored aspects of the work, which are independent of and do not affect the copyright status of the AI-generated material itself.”
The US Copyright Office, then, is only covering the human-created aspects of artwork, to whatever extent that may be on a case-by-case basis. That's unfortunate for companies and individuals looking to make AI art the mainstay of their products, and it will have a knock-on affect for games, films, and other media.
With this new ruling, the US Copyright office has also overturned their decision to copyright a comic book called 'Zarya of the Dawn,' which used AI generated images as artwork.
Although these copyright laws have only been outlined by the US Copyright Office, we expect other countries to follow the same or similar standard when it comes to copyright laws regarding AI art.