AI generations can be copyrighted now - on one condition

In a Statement of policy (opens in new tab) published earlier this month, the Office's Director Shira Perlmutter wrote: "In the case of works containing AI-generated material, the Office will consider whether the AI contributions are the result of'mechanical reproduction' or instead of an author's'own original mental conception, to which [the author] gave visible form.'" Perlmutter describes that the analysis would be on a "case-by-case" basis in order to assess whether the human is the true author of the content. An example of a denied application would involve an AI writer receiving a prompt and generating new "complex written, visual, or musical" content. This could involve the creative arrangement of AI-generated content or further editing whereby AI content is considered merely a template for further work. In order to help distinguish AI from human-generated content, there have been discussions of watermarking work created by machines, but so far that has proven troublesome.