As artificial intelligence-generated artwork becomes more common, it remains unavailable for copyright protection, according to a U.S. court. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case over whether art generated by artificial intelligence can be copyrighted. The rejection means a lower court’s decision to dismiss the copyright claim will stand.
The case dates back to 2018, when Stephen Thaler applied for a recently entered heaven. Instead of using ChatGPT or Midjourney, computer scientist Thaler created an artificial intelligence system to generate relevant artwork. However, the U.S. Copyright Office rejected his application in 2022 on the grounds that it was not filed by a human author. Thaler sought an appeal to a higher court, but ultimately had to escalate the case to the Supreme Court after both a federal judge in Washington and the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against him.
With the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection, Thaler’s case is unlikely to proceed. There is always the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a related case in the future, but Thaler’s lawyers said that “even if the Copyright Office’s test is later overturned in another case, it will be too late,” adding that the decision will have a negative impact on the creative industry in a “crucial year.” Notably, Thaler also submitted an application for an AI-generated invention to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, but it was rejected for similar reasons.
