ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how the use of AI systems in the process of creation might impact the protectability of AI-generated output under copyright law. For that purpose, the chapter defines the main elements that characterise AI systems, and explores concrete AI applications that generate works. It will also be explained what the meaning of creativity is in the AI context. The regime of copyright protection will be examined in the four jurisdictions selected: the European Union, the United States, Australia and Japan. For each jurisdiction, the chapter analyses what copyright’s protected subject matter is, as well as the meaning of authorship. Other possible forms of protection, such as neighbouring rights regimes or the legal institute of derivative works, will also be investigated. The chapter concludes that copyright protection is dependent on human intervention in the process of creation, and suggests a test to assess when human intervention during the creative process is enough for an authorship claim. Against the yardstick of an analysis of copyright rationales, the chapter also performs a normative assessment as to whether AI-generated output should be protected by copyright, and offers a possible solution for a new regime of AI-generated works.
