AI-created visuals are gaining popularity, yet they remain ineligible for copyright protection under US law. On Monday, the nation's highest court turned down an appeal concerning the copyright status of an AI-assisted piece of art. This decision upholds a previous ruling by a lower court that denied the registration request.
The dispute originated in 2018 when computer scientist Stephen Thaler sought to register an artwork titled A Recent Entrance to Paradise with the authorities. Thaler developed his own AI tool to produce the image, distinct from popular platforms like ChatGPT or Midjourney. In 2022, the US Copyright Office denied the submission, citing the absence of human authorship. Thaler pursued multiple appeals, but a Washington federal judge and the US Court of Appeals both sided against him, prompting the matter to reach the Supreme Court.
The top court's denial effectively ends prospects for Thaler's challenge. While the justices might consider a similar issue down the line, Thaler's legal team noted that any future reversal of the Copyright Office's criteria would arrive too late, having already hindered the creative sector in pivotal periods. Additionally, Thaler had submitted AI-generated inventions to the US Patent and Trademark Office, facing rejections on comparable grounds of lacking human involvement.