IP rights at top of mind as U.S. Copyright Office offers guidance on AI-generated works

AI tools allow users to generate images, audio, and textual works in response to textual prompts. These tools "learn" how to generate this content by ingesting massive sets of preexisting, human-authored works. How and to what extent the use of AI impacts the ability to secure intellectual property (IP) rights are evolving questions in IP law. Recently, in Thaler v. Vidal2, the U.S. Federal Circuit Court analyzed AI inventorship in view of the U.S. Patent Act – ultimately concluding that the Patent Act unambiguously "requires that inventors must be natural persons; that is, human beings." In Thaler, the AI technology known as "DABUS" used general background knowledge of a technical field to conceive and recognize the utility of inventions without specific guidance from a human being.