AI Literacy for Students

Copyright and Artificial Intelligence - Part 2: Copyrightability. A Report of the Register of Copyrights, January 2025

The report underscores that, under current copyright law, AI-generated works are not independently copyrightable unless there is substantial human creative input. A key concern is the extent of human involvement—mere prompting or curation may not be enough for copyright, but substantial creative modifications could support a claim. However, legal and policy discussions continue to evolve, potentially shaping future copyright protections for AI-assisted works.

• A human may obtain copyright:
  • If AI is merely assisting a human (using AI for text generation but editing extensively, brainstorming, etc.)
  • If a human has significantly modified or rearranged AI generated content
• A human may not obtain copyright if AI creates the final work without creative human input

Listen to a podcast of the report created using Google's NotebookLM.