Steptoe has been tracking the fast-moving developments in artificial intelligence both in the United States and internationally. Below is an update on recent legal and policy developments related to AI, with a focus on intellectual property and high-profile policy issues.
Continue Reading AI Legal & Regulatory News Update—Week of 9/17/23
A Federal Court ruled that works that are entirely created by artificial intelligence (“AI”) systems cannot receive a copyright under United States law. Contrary to how this decision has been reported in news summaries, the case was decided on a relatively narrow issue, and kept the door open for future decisions to expand on this new area of the law.
The plaintiff used an AI system called the “Creativity Machine” to generate a piece of visual art called “A Recent Entrance to Paradise” (reproduced below):
The plaintiff claimed that the work had been “autonomously created by a computer algorithm running on a machine,” and attempted to register the work with the Copyright Office. The Copyright Office denied the application on the ground that copyright law only extends to works created by human beings.
