How copyright applies to AI-generated works

Photo credit: Pixabay.

This article was written by the author and edited by those at Asia Law Network.

Humans were distinguished from artificial intelligence (AI) by their capacity for imagination, creativity, and sensitivity. However, as computer-generated literature and artwork continue to develop, these traits seem increasingly vulnerable to the specter of singularity.

AI is now capable of simulating the distinctive styles of long-deceased artists, devising speculative sequels to our favorite TV series, and producing novels worthy of nationwide writing competitions. In these circumstances, what role do we play? Do we deserve to be credited with authorship?

In this article, I discuss the implications of this trend on Singapore’s copyright law. In my opinion, computer-generated art and literature should still be protected as an author’s work, based on the country’s present copyright regime and the state of the technology at this juncture. However, unprecedented advances in machine learning (ML) may warrant the relegation of fully computer-generated works to the domain of entrepreneurial works instead.

The significance of authorship

In its critical decision in a July 2011 case, Singapore’s Court of Appeal laid out two key principles relating to authorship in copyright:

1. No “original work” can be under copyright protection without having an identifiable human author who created the work.
2. Only a human being—not even a company—can qualify as an author. One reason for this is to prevent a non-human entity from holding copyright indefinitely (since copyright protection covers an original work for the author’s life plus 70 years).

So it’s clear in the current law that a bot or computer program cannot be credited as an author of a copyright work. The Court of Appeal indicated that:

“Not infrequently, in cases involving a high degree of automation, there will be no original work produced for the simple reason that there are no identifiable human authors.”

Have we reached this stage yet?

Computer-assisted and computer-generated works

Computer-assisted works

It’s common now to find artwork or literature made with the help of computer programs. At one end of the spectrum, this can include someone using Microsoft Word to write an essay. At the other end, computer algorithms can produce digital art and may even deliberately simulate textures, styles, etc.

In the first case, the clear direction of a human mind and the ancillary role of the computer program as a tool makes it clear that a person is the author. However, in the second case, the lines are not so clear.

Conclusion