Generative Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law

The widespread use of generative AI programs raises the question of who, if anyone, may hold the copyright to content created using these programs, given that the AI’s user, the AI’s programmer, and the AI program itself all play a role in the creation of these works.

This paper explores questions that courts and the U.S. Copyright Office have begun to confront regarding whether the outputs of generative AI programs are entitled to copyright protection, as well as how training and using these programs might infringe copyrights in other works.