[Prime Intellectual Property] This AI-Generated Artwork Receives Copyright Recognition in the US

Title: "A Piece of American Cheese"
AI Startup InvokeAI's Technology Utilized
Approved by the US Copyright Office After Initial Rejection

An image created using generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology has been registered for the first time with the United States Copyright Office. Until now, the copyright laws of major countries have only recognized "human creations" as works eligible for copyright protection. However, as images generated by AI tools are now being granted copyright protection, a previously unbreakable barrier is beginning to crumble. This development is expected to have an impact on AI services and the digital art market worldwide in the future.

A visual work created with generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology, titled "A Piece of American Cheese." This is the first case where a work produced with the help of AI has been legally recognized. Source: InvokeAI

Kent Kiersh, CEO of InvokeAI, an AI-based image generation startup founded in 2023, succeeded in registering a work titled "A Piece of American Cheese" with the United States Copyright Office this past January. CEO Kiersh used an AI tool developed by his own company. "A Piece of American Cheese" is an image that depicts a woman's face in a mosaic style reminiscent of stained glass. The top of her head features melting cheese, her hair is shaped like spaghetti noodles, and there is an additional eye on her forehead.

CEO Kiersh initially submitted this work to the Copyright Office in August of last year, but the office rejected the application, citing a lack of sufficient human contribution to support copyright registration. He then submitted additional materials, including a video documenting the entire image creation process and an explanation of the extent of human involvement in the creative process, and requested a reconsideration. On January 30, the Copyright Office accepted his application for copyright registration. The decision recognized not only the use of AI technology, but also the manifestation of human creativity and the leading role of human contribution in the creation of the work.

Kent Kiersh, founder and CEO of InvokeAI, filmed the creation process of an image made using his company's AI tool and submitted the video to the United States Copyright Office. Source InvokeAI

The "inpainting" technique used in this work also played a role in its registration as a copyrighted work. Inpainting is an AI technique in which a specific area of an image is selected, and then a prompt or settings are entered to regenerate only that area. Through this process, the focus was on how creatively humans selected, arranged, and adjusted elements in the AI-generated output. The degree of human "control" also became an important criterion in determining whether the work could be registered. Previously, results produced simply by users entering prompts to express their intentions were considered to lack sufficient control, as the outputs could vary each time.

Until now, most countries' copyright laws have effectively protected only works created by humans. For example, "Th??tre D’Op?ra Spatial," which won first place at an art competition in Colorado in 2022, and images included in the graphic novel "Zarya of the Dawn" were both created with Midjourney and were denied copyright protection on the grounds that they were not the result of human authorship. However, this recent case is significant in that it demonstrates content created with the help of AI can also receive copyright protection. As a result, the use of AI technology in the creative process may become more widespread, and AI services formally recognized as tools for creating works are likely to gain popularity among creators. Ryu Siwon, a professor at Chonnam National University, stated through the Korea Copyright Commission, "It will become increasingly important to retain information about the creation process?such as videos and process logs?as supporting evidence when applying for copyright registration."