Supreme Court Leaves Thaler Ban in Place
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The latest Supreme Court move cements how ai generated art is treated under existing intellectual property rules in the United States. Supreme Court declines to intervene on AI authorship The Supreme Court of the United States has refused to review a closely watched challenge to the U.S. Copyright Office over protections for works created by artificial intelligence. As a result, lower court decisions holding that purely AI-created images lack human authorship, and therefore cannot be copyrighted, remain in force. The decision, issued on a Monday, came in the longrunning dispute brought by Stephen Thaler, a computer scientist from Missouri. Thaler had asked the high court to overturn a federal appeals court ruling that confirmed AI-generated art cannot receive copyright because it is not authored by a person. In 2019, the Copyright Office rejected Thaler’s bid to secure protection for an image titled A Recent Entrance to Paradise. He sought registration on behalf of an algorithm he developed, arguing the system should be recognized as the creator. However, the office concluded that copyright law requires a human author. Human authorship confirmed as a core legal requirement The Copyright Office revisited Thaler’s application in 2022. After further review, it again held that the image did not contain the necessary element of “human authorship,” and therefore could not be registered. That determination later became central to the broader legal fight over AI-created works. After Thaler challenged the agency’s stance, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled in 2023 that human authorship is “a bedrock requirement of copyright.” Moreover, the judge emphasized that the existing statute presumes an author must be a natural person, not a machine or algorithmic system. That said, Thaler appealed, taking the dispute to a federal appeals court in Washington, DC. In 2025, the appeals panel upheld Judge Howell’s…
Filed under: News - @ March 3, 2026 9:26 pm