On March 18, 2025, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in Stephen Thaler v. Shira Perlmutter et al., case number 23-5233 addressing whether artwork created solely by an AI system, the Creativity Machine, qualifies for copyright protection. The court unanimously denied copyright protection, reaffirming that current law requires a human author for copyright eligibility. A well-known example illustrating this principle is the “monkey selfie” case, where a photo taken by a monkey was deemed ineligible for copyright because it lacked a human creator. Naruto v. Slater, 888 F.3d 418 (9th Cir. 2018).

The Copyright Office has consistently rejected copyright claims for works where the author is listed as artificial intelligence. For example, in 2022, it denied protection for Théâtre D’opéra Spatial, a piece created using Midjourney, despite the artist generating it with 624 text prompts. They based their decision on the fact that AI, rather than a human, was the primary creator.

For guidance on how to qualify your works for copyright registration — including where aspects of such works have been AI-assisted — please reach out to Lutzker & Lutzker.