The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case concerning copyright protection for artwork created by generative artificial intelligence, thereby reinforcing the prevailing legal standard that requires human authorship for intellectual property protection. This decision stems from a dispute involving computer scientist Stephen Thaler, who sought copyright for an image generated by his AI system, the Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience (DABUS). Lower courts, including a federal judge’s ruling in 2023, upheld the U.S. Copyright Office’s rejection of Thaler’s application, reinforcing the treatment of AI as a tool used by humans, rather than as an independent creator. Legal experts anticipate that similar disputes may arise in the future, especially from parties with direct economic interests in AI-generated works.
US Supreme Court declines to hear copyright case for AI-generated art
