The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would not hear a case over whether artificially intelligent art can receive copyright protection.
The decision all but ends computer scientist Stephen Thaler’s years-long quest to get federal copyright protection for artwork produced by his artificial intelligence system, DABUS.
In the 2024 profile american artSeiler told Chandy Escalante-de Mattei He considers DABUS to be a “primordial consciousness” capable of withstanding stress and trauma. As Taylor portrays it, obtaining copyright protection was to affirm the agency of his AI model rather than to secure some financial benefit. “Is DABUS an inventor? Or an artist?” he said at the time. “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you. It’s more like a sentient, artificial being. But I doubt even the artificial part.”
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Thaler’s quixotic quest began in 2018 when he filed a federal copyright registration for the artwork. recently entered heavenmade during one of his many experiments using DABUS. The Copyright Office rejected the application in 2022, holding that a work must have a human author to be copyrightable.
In contrast to other (failed) efforts to obtain copyright for AI-generated works, Thaler did not attempt to obtain copyright for himself or claim that he created the work with the help of AI. Instead, he credits DABUS with creating “The Nearest Entrance” independently.
Thaler appealed the case, which went before a federal judge in Washington in 2023; the judge ruled that human authorship is an “essential requirement of copyright.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld that ruling last year.
The Trump administration has urged the court not to hear Thaler’s case, firmly supporting that copyright belongs only to humans.
Thaler’s lawyers said the decision would have an “irreversible negative impact” on the development of artificial intelligence in the creative industries. Reuters.
