Copyright Protection for AI-Generated Content

Summary

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• ChatGPT is unique in the originality of the output it is able to create
• This raises questions as to whether machines, rather than or in addition to humans, should be afforded intellectual property rights
• Two recent court decisions illustrate the difficult legal issues which will need to be grappled with as a result
• The development of AI could also lead to a revolution in the legal system

In a few short months, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm with more than 100 million users registered to interact with this chatbot. While ChatGPT is not the first AI product, the level of originality in its outputs has not been seen in all prior AI products, leading many people to sound the alarm that in the not-too-distant future humans may not be needed even for jobs that require creative skills. Among other things, ChatGPT is able to generate works that require certain levels of creativity, like novels and poems, and such ChatGPT-generated works often are not easily distinguishable from those from human authors. With copyright protection critical for human authors to gain exclusivity rights over their works, it is worth considering whether such protection could be extended to works created by ChatGPT or other similar AI products under the current legal regime in China.

Understanding ChatGPT