AI-Generated Works Get No US Copyright Protection, Courts and Officials Confirm
Under current US law, works produced entirely by artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted because copyright requires a human author, regardless of how detailed or iterative a user's prompt was. The US Copyright Office reaffirmed this position in its January 2025 report on AI and copyright, concluding that existing law already addresses the issue without need for new legislation. Courts have backed this stance, most notably in Thaler v. Perlmutter, where the DC Circuit ruled in 2025 that copyright demands human authorship, and the Supreme Court declined to revisit that ruling in 2026. However, distinctly human contributions woven into an AI-assisted work — such as original writing, editorial choices, or creative selection and arrangement — can still qualify for protection. The UK has historically taken a different approach by allowing limited protection for computer-generated works, though that policy is now under review.
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