The Unseen Artist: Can AI-Generated Images Be Copyrighted?

Published on July 26, 2024

As AI image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E become increasingly powerful, they've opened up a creative Pandora's box. They've also created a massive legal headache. The central question: if a human didn't create it, who owns it? Can it even be owned at all?

The "Human Authorship" Requirement

Historically, copyright law has been built on a simple foundation: protecting the original works of human authors. The U.S. Copyright Office has been very clear on this point for decades. They've denied copyright to a monkey who took a selfie and, more recently, to AI systems.

In a landmark 2023 decision, the Copyright Office stated that an image created by an AI without any human input could not be copyrighted. The reasoning is that copyright law is designed to incentivize human creativity. If there's no human creator, there's nothing to protect.

Where is the Line Drawn?

This is where it gets complicated. What if a human uses AI as a tool, much like a camera or Photoshop? The Copyright Office has provided some guidance:

• Simple Prompts: If a user simply types a text prompt like "a cat riding a bicycle," the resulting image is likely not copyrightable. The user's creative input is considered too minimal. The AI did the heavy lifting of composition, lighting, and form.
• Significant Creative Input: However, if an artist uses an AI tool and then significantly modifies the output—through complex prompting, multi-stage editing, and combining it with their own work in tools like Photoshop—they may be able to copyright their contributions. The copyright would protect the human's creative additions, not the underlying AI-generated parts.

What This Means for You

The legal landscape is still evolving. For now, it's safest to assume that most images generated purely from a text prompt are in a legal gray area, potentially residing in the public domain. Companies and creators are experimenting with new licensing models, but the core legal questions are far from settled.

This uncertainty makes it even more important to be able to distinguish between human-made and AI-generated content. For any image you're unsure about, you can always use a tool like The Picture Inspector to analyze its origin.