The US Copyright Office declares that 'use of AI to assist in the creative process is copyrightable'

As generative AI technology develops rapidly, the US Copyright Office declared in February 2023 that ' artworks created by AI do not have copyright ' and ' comic drawings created by AI are not protected by copyright. ' The following month, it issued guidance on whether AI-generated drawings and texts can be copyrighted, stating that 'AI-generated works must be modified to meet the standards for copyright protection' as a condition for copyright to arise. On January 29, 2025, the US Copyright Office mentioned AI copyright for the first time in about two years, declaring that 'simply entering a prompt and outputting the work will not be copyrightable, but the use of AI tools to assist in the creative process does not infringe on the copyright of the work.'

Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2 Copyrightability Report - Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-2-Copyrightability-Report.pdf
https://copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-2-Copyrightability-Report.pdf

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In its 'Guidance on Works Containing AI-Generated Materials' published in March 2023, the US Copyright Office argued that 'AI works that are generated solely by prompts and have not been modified' do not 'have the ultimate creative control over the way the AI interprets the prompts and generates the work, based on our understanding of currently available generative AI technology. Therefore, the AI creation is not a human work and therefore cannot be copyrighted.' On the other hand, the US Copyright Office has stated that if a human arranges a generative AI work in a particular order, such as in a graphic novel, the series of images may be copyrighted if the arrangement is 'sufficiently creative.'

Can AI-generated images and text be copyrighted? U.S. Copyright Office releases guidance - GIGAZINE

In January 2025, the US Copyright Office released 'Copyright and AI Part 2: Copyrightability,' which is consistent with the March 2023 guidance and policy, but more accurately addresses the legitimacy of AI when used to complement the creative process. According to the document, of the more than 10,000 notices of opinion received by the US Copyright Office in recent years, about half were about 'copyrightability,' which asks whether a work meets the requirements for copyright. Therefore, the US Copyright Office stated that 'while recognizing that copyrightability is determined on a case-by-case basis, we present the legal principles that apply to determining copyrightability,' clarifying the copyright issues posed by AI technology and presenting a report discussing the copyrightability of AI.

The report states that the US Copyright Office maintains its March 2023 guidelines that 'AI-generated content is not copyrightable' and 'creative selection and arrangement of AI-generated content is subject to copyright protection,' but also explicitly states that 'even if a work contains AI-generated material, it will be protected by copyright as if it were a work created by a human author.'

In its report, the US Copyright Office referred to the MPA's comment that the use of AI technology 'presents opportunities for advancement for creators and audiences,' and stated, 'We agree that auxiliary uses that enhance human expression do not limit copyright protection. In addition, the office pointed out that auxiliary uses, such as using AI as a brainstorming tool or to create outlines for literary works, do not interfere with the copyrightability of a work.'

On the other hand, the report states that a system that generates images based on input of text prompts does not have enough 'control' to claim copyright, even if the user can 'fine-tune the prompts to repeatedly generate the desired image.' The report states, 'You can choose the system's output by modifying and submitting the prompts multiple times. But what you are doing here is 'rerolling the dice,' and even if you could control what is generated, that does not change the degree of control you have over the process.'