Paid for Content That Legally Doesn’t Exist: Who Is the True Author of AI-Created Works — Column

Copyright on AI-generated content remains undefined globally and in Ukraine

The issue of copyright for content created by artificial intelligence (AI) is causing increasing controversy among copyright experts and users of these technologies. In Ukraine, as well as worldwide, there is currently no unified solution for regulating this issue.

With the advent of artificial intelligence, the traditional concept of authorship has begun to change. Whereas previously copyright was attributed to the person who created the text, music, or other creation, the question now arises of who is the author when a product is created by a machine based on human requests. The person providing the request does not become the author since the AI performs most of the work, but the AI itself cannot be an author either because it lacks legal personality.

As a result, content created by artificial intelligence remains legally “ownerless.” This poses a problem for users as they cannot prohibit others from using such content. Moreover, AI tools themselves also face challenges, as they are trained on vast amounts of protected content without the permission of the authors.

In some countries, such as the United States, court decisions have already been made confirming that machine-generated content is not subject to copyright. Other countries, like the United Kingdom, have a concept by which the author is recognized as the one who formulated the request. Meanwhile, the EU is actively discussing a sui generis rights mechanism that may introduce new requirements for labeling AI-created content.

Currently, content owners seek to obtain at least some protection by entering into commercial licenses with platforms that create this content. It is important for creators and clients to understand the risks and check the terms of using AI technologies since large platforms may change the rules and claim rights to created content.