In January 2025, the Copyright Office released Part 2 of its anticipated three-part series on copyright and artificial intelligence (AI). The report discusses copyrighting works that include AI-generated content and provides guidance for applicants seeking protection of such work.
Part 2 emphasizes the importance of “human authorship,” as works purely generated by AI or works lacking sufficient human control over the work’s expressive elements are not copyrightable. Notably, in the eyes of the Copyright Office, entering prompts alone—no matter how detailed—will not be considered sufficient control over the AI-output for the ultimate work to be entitled to copyright protection. Still, original human expression is protectible even if the final work product also includes AI-generated content—for example, a film incorporating an AI-generated special effects sequence is still copyrightable even though the AI-generated portions are not. Part 2 seemingly carves out protection for human-authored work that is perceptible in an AI-output, work that used AI only to “assist” with its creation, and human modifications to or creative selection, coordination, or arrangement of AI-generated outputs. Of course, the ultimate authority on what is copyrightable lies with the courts, which have only begun to explore the issue.
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