Supreme Court Declines AI Copyright Case, Extending Legal Setback for AI-Generated Works
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case about whether artwork created entirely by generative artificial intelligence qualifies for copyright protection, leaving in place lower court decisions that limit U.S. copyrights to works with human authorship. This case involved Stephen Thaler, who sought copyright protection for an AI-generated image. The U.S. Copyright Office rejected his application, arguing that creative works must have human authors. Federal courts upheld this position, and the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling. Thaler’s attorneys argued the law should evolve to accommodate technological advances, but the Supreme Court’s refusal to review means Thaler’s appeal is over. Legal experts describe the case as raising legitimate and complex questions about copyright, but for now, only human-created works can be copyrighted in the U.S. Future challenges are expected, especially from plaintiffs with stronger economic interests in AI-generated content.
