A work of art created by artificial intelligence without any human input cannot be copyrighted under U.S. law, a U.S. court in Washington, D.C., has ruled.
Only works with human authors can receive copyrights, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said on Friday, affirming the Copyright OfficeтАЩs rejection of an application filed by computer scientist Stephen Thaler on behalf of his DABUS system.
The Friday decision follows losses for Thaler on bids for U.S. patents covering inventions he said were created by DABUS, short for Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience.
Thaler has also applied for DABUS-generated patents in other countries including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia and Saudi Arabia with limited success.
ThalerтАЩs attorney, Ryan Abbott, on Monday said that he and his client strongly disagree with the decision and will appeal. The Copyright Office in a statement on Monday said it тАЬbelieves the court reached the correct result.тАЭ
The fast-growing field of generative AI has raised novel intellectual property issues. The Copyright Office has also rejected an artistтАЩs bid for copyrights on images generated through the AI system Midjourney despite the artistтАЩs argument that the system was part of their creative process.
Several pending lawsuits have also been filed over the use of copyrighted works to train generative AI without permission.
тАЬWe are approaching new frontiers in copyright as artists put AI in their toolbox,тАЭ which will raise тАЬchallenging questionsтАЭ for copyright law, Howell wrote on Friday.
тАЬThis case, however, is not nearly so complex,тАЭ Howell said.
Thaler applied in 2018 for a copyright covering тАЭA Recent Entrance to Paradise,тАЭ a piece of visual art he said was created by his AI system without any human input. The office rejected the application last year and said creative works must have human authors to be copyrightable.
Thaler challenged the decision in federal court, arguing that human authorship is not a concrete legal requirement and allowing AI copyrights would be in line with copyrightтАЩs purpose as outlined in the U.S. constitution to тАЭpromote the progress of science and useful arts.тАЭ
Howell agreed with the Copyright Office and said human authorship is a тАЭbedrock requirement of copyrightтАЭ based on тАЭcenturies of settled understanding.тАЭ
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Reuters) Shaurya SharmaShaurya Sharma, Sub Editor at News18, reports on consumer and gaming technology. He has been helping people figure out their tech to make informed cho…Read MoreOriginal Article