Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on everyone’s mind. Earlier this summer, a U.S. federal court for the first time addressed the copyright registerability of works claimed to be generated by computer-based AI. In Thaler v. Perlmutter, No. 22-1564 (D.D.C. August 18, 2023), the judge ruled:  “ … that the United States Copyright office had properly denied copyright registration to plaintiff Stephen Thaler, a scientist and technology entrepreneur, for a work of visual art titled A Recent Entrance to Paradise, which he claimed was created by a computer system he owned called ‘Creativity Machine.’”

The court’s opinion is important because it comports with the Copyright Office’s guidance issued earlier this year concerning the use of AI to create works in which copyright protection is sought.