This is a summary of the U.S. Copyright Office’s “Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability” Report, issued in January 2025. It is part of a broader initiative by the Copyright Office to analyze the legal and policy issues surrounding AI and copyright. The first part of the series, published in 2024, covered digital replicas (i.e., AI-generated voice and likeness replication). Future installments will address AI training on copyrighted works, licensing, and liability.
The U.S. Copyright Office reaffirms its position that copyright protection requires human authorship and that purely AI-generated works cannot be copyrighted. The report does not recommend new legislation, asserting that existing laws can address the challenges posed by AI-generated content.
1️ Fully AI-Generated Works (No Human Input)
🔹 Position: ❌ Not copyrightable
🔹 Explanation: If a work is created entirely by an AI system without any meaningful human involvement, it does not qualify for copyright protection. U.S. law requires human authorship, and AI-generated works do not meet that standard. Courts have consistently ruled that copyright cannot apply to works created by non-human entities, including AI, animals, or divine beings.
2️ AI-Assisted Works (Human Input + AI Edits/Refinements)
🔹 Position: ✅ Copyrightable if human contribution is perceptible and creative
🔹 Explanation: When AI is used as a tool—much like photo editing software, spell checkers, or musical composition aids—the final work can be copyrighted if the human author contributes original expression. The key factor is whether the human exercises creative control over the AI’s output, rather than simply letting the AI generate material on its own.
3️ AI-Generated Works Based on Simple Prompts
🔹 Position: ❌ Not copyrightable
🔹 Explanation: Typing a short or generic prompt (e.g., “Draw a castle at sunset”) does not qualify as authorship. A simple prompt is considered an idea rather than an expression, and copyright law protects only the latter. Since AI systems generate unpredictable outputs, the resulting work is not directly authored by the user, making it ineligible for copyright.
4️ AI-Generated Works with Detailed, Iterative Prompts
🔹 Position: ❓ Case-by-case basis
🔹 Explanation: When a user carefully refines and reworks their prompts, guiding the AI towards a specific result, the analysis becomes more complex. If the prompt involves highly detailed descriptions, multiple iterations, and user intervention that significantly shapes the final output, there may be a case for authorship. However, since AI behavior remains unpredictable, the Copyright Office evaluates these claims individually.
5️ AI-Generated Works Incorporating Human-Created Elements
🔹 Position: ✅ Copyrightable if human-authored content is significant
🔹 Explanation: If an AI-generated work includes original human-created content (e.g., an AI-generated painting with hand-drawn elements added by an artist), then the human-authored portions can be copyrighted. The AI-generated parts themselves remain unprotected, but the final product may be copyrightable as a whole, provided the human contribution is significant and recognizable.
6️ Modifications of AI-Generated Content by a Human
🔹 Position: ✅ Copyrightable if modifications involve creative human expression
🔹 Explanation: If an AI system generates a rough draft, and a human edits, rearranges, or enhances it with meaningful creative input, the resulting work may qualify for copyright. For example, an AI-generated poem that is later rewritten by a human to add rhythm, structure, and unique language can be copyrighted, but only the human-added modifications receive protection.
7️ Selection/Arrangement of AI-Generated Works (Compilations)
🔹 Position: ✅ Copyrightable if selection/arrangement meets originality standards
🔹 Explanation: While individual AI-generated works cannot be copyrighted, a curated selection or unique arrangement of AI-generated content may qualify under compilation copyright. This follows the same principles as photography collections or anthologies, where copyright protects how materials are chosen, organized, and presented, rather than the individual pieces themselves.
Final Thoughts
The Copyright Office maintains that AI cannot be an author under U.S. law, but humans using AI tools can be authors—as long as their creative input is substantial and recognizable. Each case is evaluated on a fact-specific basis, ensuring that copyright protection aligns with traditional authorship principles.