A request to let an AI copyright a piece of art was denied by the US Copyright Office. A three-member board reviewed a 2019 verdict against Steven Thaler, who attempted to copyright a photograph on behalf of an algorithm dubbed Creativity Machine. The board determined that Thaler’s AI-created image lacked an element of “human authorship,” a need for protection, according to the board.
The above work by Creativity Machine is titled “A Recent Entrance to Paradise.” It’s one of a series Thaler calls a “simulated near-death experience,” in which an algorithm reprocesses photographs to produce hallucinating visions and a fake afterlife story. The AI is also expected to do this with very little human intervention, which has proven to be a deal-breaker for the Copyright Office.
