Authorless AI-assisted productions: Recent developments impacting their protection in the European Union

Abstract

The question of whether AI-generated works can be protected by copyright has become a hot topic over the last few years. However, “AI-generated works”, at least as currently defined in some policy and legal texts, do not exist. This article seeks to explain how machine learning and natural language processing, which are two subfields of Artificial Intelligence, are used in the creative process. It then outlines the obstacles that works created with AI face in order to be classified as protectable subject matter. After that, it briefly analyses whether such works can be protected by existing related rights and concludes by discussing the arguments put forward in the academic literature in favour of the creation of a new exclusive right to encourage investment in “creative AI”.