AI-Generated Work And Copyright Law: Assessing Ownership, Originality And Ethical Implications

Monikapriya Sinha, Christ (Deemed to be University), Delhi NCR

ABSTRACT

“The rise of the machines is here, but they do not come as conquerors, they come as creators.” -Andres Guadamuz

In recent times, social media has been flooded with pictures or videos in which Artificial Intelligence has a role to play in terms of content creation. There are videos, audio, and images on social media that are generated by Artificial Intelligence. A natural person does not create such content but an artificial person, therefore is not owned by an individual. The ownership of AI-generated work has been in question for a long time in many parts of the world. Various scholars take different approaches to define the legality of AI-generated work. In India, the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 acts as the primary statute which deals with Copyright which is part of Intellectual Property Rights. This statute deals with the originality of literacy, music, and dramatic work. But the statute does not deal with the work generated by the AI, therefore such works are neither owned by anyone nor are considered “original.” Another problem that arose from such work is that sometimes this work is created by copying the work of a natural person. The AI developers can take this data and feed it into their engine without compensating or even notifying the original owners. The AI sometimes creates work that resembles or is similar to that made by a natural person but has never been appreciated. Infringement of copyright is an ethical problem with AI work and art generators and has moral implications. Since, AI-Generated work is not recognized under the Indian Copyright Act, 1957; therefore, such work cannot be questioned. This paper analyses the current situation of AI- generated work and underlying provisions under the existing Copyright laws in India. It also focuses on the ethical and moral implications as it affects the work done by humans; thereby, their efforts are not recognized much due to machine-generated work. The research methodology used in this research paper is doctrinal.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright, Originality, Ownership, Ethical Implications