U.S. Copyright Office Approves Over 1,000 AI-Enhanced Creations

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The U.S. Copyright Office is currently conducting a significant investigation into copyright law and artificial intelligence. In a recent interview, a lawyer from the Office mentioned that it is already registering works enhanced by AI. In an April article in WIPO Magazine, Assistant General Counsel Jalyce Mangum stated that the "Office has registered more than a thousand works where applicants have followed our guidance to disclose and disclaim AI-generated material." Importantly, Mangum noted that the Office considers "whether AI is enhancing human expression or is the source of the expressive choices." A January 2025 report from the Office indicated that hundreds of AI-enhanced works had been registered, and now it is confirmed that more than 1,000 such works have been recorded.

Many artists have taken a strong stance against artificial intelligence, vocally opposing its use in creative endeavors. Reports have highlighted the backlash against AI’s involvement in films like The Brutalist and Late Night With the Devil, as well as the recent project that employed the likeness of Agatha Christie, the restoration of The Wizard of Oz for The Sphere, and the controversial Studio Ghibli image trend that utilized AI tools. Previously, the Office determined that material generated by AI is eligible for copyright protection only if it is a part of a work primarily created by a human. This means that images generated by tools like DALL-E, ChatGPT, or Midjourney cannot be copyrighted, regardless of the effort involved in refining the prompt. A representative from the U.S. Copyright Office confirmed that their full guidance on AI-assisted material is accessible.

That guidance was included in the second part of a report from the Office regarding copyright and artificial intelligence. (Part 3, set to be released later this year, will have significant implications for how AI models are trained.) "In Part 2 of our report, the Office affirmed that copyright does not extend to purely AI-generated material or material where there is insufficient human control over the expressive elements," Mangum stated in the WIPO article. However, material that is merely "enhanced" by AI is currently eligible for copyright registration. Part 2 of the report also highlights specific use cases such as "crowd removal from photos, video stabilization tools, and ray tracing."

Topics

• Artificial Intelligence