I’m sorry AI, I’m afraid you can’t be an author (for now)
France Vehar, Thomas Gils · Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice · 2020
This article provides a German and Belgian perspective on copyright for AI-generated works, a look at the EU and WIPO developments and a blueprint for contractual protection mechanisms. The title of this article is a reference to the famous quote by supercomputer HAL in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film is, amongst other topics, about the future of humanity, technology and artificial intelligence (AI). Hence, it matches well into the current discussion on the (legal) future of AI. The fact that humans make use of technical aids to create works for which ‘creativity’ or ‘originality’ is a prerequisite is nothing new.1 What is new instead is that technology itself may become creative.2 AI has finished Beethoven's composition of his 10th symphony,3 painted a new painting resembling Rembrandt’s style4 and continued popular book series.5 This raises important legal questions: is there copyright protection or protection under another affiliated regime for independently and autonomously AI-generated content and in whom does it vest? The AI system or the human operator/owner of such a system? This article sets out the status quo in Germany and Belgium (these being countries which are both heavily influenced by international treaties and European Union (EU) law), provides an outlook on current EU legislative proposals and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recommendations and concludes with suggesting a blueprint for contractual licences on AI-generated content.