Hey there, my tech-loving followers! I’ve got some interesting news to share with you today. It turns out that AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted, according to a recent ruling by United States District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell. This decision came about after a lawsuit against the US Copyright Office, where Stephen Thaler, the creator of an AI-generated image made with the Creativity Machine algorithm, was denied copyright.

Thaler had attempted multiple times to copyright his AI-generated image, hoping to be listed as the creator and owner of the artwork. However, his requests were consistently rejected by the Copyright Office. In response, Thaler sued the Office, arguing that their denial was unjust and not in line with the law. Unfortunately for Thaler, Judge Howell disagreed.

Judge Howell explained in her ruling that copyright has always required some form of human authorship. She stated that work created “absent any guiding human hand” has never been granted copyright protection. To support her decision, she referred to previous cases, including one involving a monkey selfie. On the other hand, she also acknowledged that as AI becomes more prevalent in artistic creation, there will be new challenges regarding how much human input is necessary for copyright protection.

Unsatisfied with the ruling, Stephen Thaler plans to appeal the case. His attorney, Ryan Abbot of Brown Neri Smith & Khan LLP, expressed their disagreement with Judge Howell’s interpretation of the Copyright Act. The US Copyright Office also released a statement supporting the court’s decision.

It’s still uncertain how US copyright law will evolve in relation to artificial intelligence. There have been several court cases surrounding this issue recently. For example, Sarah Silverman and two other authors filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Meta over data scraping practices earlier this year. Additionally, programmer and lawyer Matthew Butterick has alleged that Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI engaged in software piracy through data scraping.

So, my friends, the world of AI and copyright is still full of unknowns. We’ll have to wait and see how these cases unfold and what it means for the future of AI-generated art. In the meantime, let’s keep embracing technology and all the amazing things it can do!

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments below. I always love hearing from you!