Copyright and Creative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems: A Twenty-First Century Approach to Authorship of AI-Generated Works in the United States
46 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2020
Date Written: June 11, 2019
Abstract
This note is divided into five sections. The first section provides a brief definition, preliminary history, and summary of the latest developments of Al technology. This is followed by an in-depth investigation into the copyrightability of Al-generated works in the second section. Importantly, the second section will trace the locus of difference between human creativity and computational creativity and propose policy changes in the application of the notion of the originality which serves as a requisite for the allocation of authorship for copyright purposes. The third section will explore reasons to accept Al-generated works as copyrightable based on utilitarian grounds. Having thus established the grounds of copyright protection eligibility for Algenerated works, the fourth section will determine how authorship of these works is best attributed or recognized through a comprehensive analysis of the merits of seven plausible options: (i) the Al system itself as author; (ii) the programmer as author; (iii) the trainer as author; (iv) the user as author; (v) joint authorship; (vi) public domain or; (vii) the data proprietor. The final section proposes a solution to who should be accepted as the author of Al-generated works that better serves constitutional purposes and balances the many interests that are likely to arise between the various actors who develop creative machines or who lawfully obtain such machines.
Keywords: artificial intelligence, creativity, intellectual property, ownership
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