NEW DELHI: Can artificial intelligence be recognised as an author and granted copyright over its artwork? The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the Copyright Office to decide the issue within eight weeks.
Justice Tushar Rao Gedela issued the direction while hearing a plea filed by American AI researcher Stephen Thaler, who is seeking copyright registration for an artwork “A Recent Entrance to Paradise”, generated by an AI model.
Thaler, who is known for testing whether AI can be recognised as an author, told the court that the artwork was created autonomously by his AI system DABUS (Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience). He claims the system is designed to simulate creative processes.
Thaler filed his copyright application in 2022. During the examination, objections were raised that only a natural person can be recognised as an author. Thaler argued that AI-generated works fall under “computer-generated works”, where authorship may vest in the person who causes the work to be created. He approached the high court seeking appropriate directions to the authorities to decide his application.
The court disposed of the petition after noting that the Copyright Office has scheduled a hearing for April 27. It directed the Registrar of Copyrights to conclude the proceedings expeditiously.
Thaler has filed similar applications in multiple countries seeking recognition of AI systems as inventors or authors. In December 2023, the UK Supreme Court upheld decisions rejecting his application to name AI as an inventor.
The US Supreme Court declined to consider whether AI-generated art can be copyrighted, after lower courts ruled that such works are not eligible for copyright protection because they lack a human creator.