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Can you copyright AI-generated content?

By Ben Tabas, Intrica Research · Updated · US

Answer

In the US you can copyright the human-authored parts of AI-assisted work, and output made from prompts alone is unlikely to qualify. The US Copyright Office concluded in its Jan. 29, 2025 report that, given current generally available technology, prompts alone do not provide enough human control to make users the authors of the output.

Where the law stands

  • The D.C. Circuit ruled on March 18, 2025 in Thaler v. Perlmutter that the Copyright Act of 1976 requires all eligible work to be authored in the first instance by a human.
  • The same opinion says the human authorship rule does not bar copyright in work made by or with the help of AI.
  • The Supreme Court denied review of Thaler v. Perlmutter on March 2, 2026, per SCOTUSblog, leaving the D.C. Circuit ruling in place.
  • The Copyright Office's Jan. 29, 2025 report found existing law adequate and said the case has not been made for changing it.

What can be protected

  • Human-authored work that is perceptible in an AI output, per the Copyright Office's Jan. 29, 2025 announcement of its report.
  • Creative arrangements or modifications a person makes to AI output, per the same announcement.
  • A person's selection, coordination and arrangement of material. The Office's Feb. 21, 2023 Zarya of the Dawn decision, cited in the report, kept the registration for a comic's human-written text and the human selection, coordination and arrangement of the work.
  • Each case gets its own review. The report says copyrightability is decided case by case.

How to register AI-assisted work

  1. Keep drafts, edit history and notes that show what you wrote, chose and changed.
  2. Disclose AI-generated material that is more than de minimis and describe the human author's contribution, as the Office's registration guidance of March 16, 2023 asks.
  3. Claim only the human-authored parts in the application.
  4. Recheck the Office's AI page before filing. As of Oct. 28, 2026, it lists the March 16, 2023 guidance and three report parts, with Part 3 on AI training still in pre-publication form.

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Sources

  1. Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability · U.S. Copyright Office, Jan. 29, 2025Supports: The conclusion on prompts, case by case review, the 2023 disclosure guidance and the Zarya of the Dawn decision.
  2. Copyright Office Releases Part 2 of Artificial Intelligence Report (NewsNet Issue 1060) · U.S. Copyright Office, Jan. 29, 2025Supports: What human contributions qualify and the finding that no change to existing law is needed.
  3. Copyright and Artificial Intelligence · U.S. Copyright Office, Oct. 28, 2026Supports: Checked Oct. 28, 2026: the report parts and their dates, and the March 16, 2023 registration guidance.
  4. Thaler v. Perlmutter, No. 23-5233 · U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, March 18, 2025Supports: The holding that the Copyright Act requires human authorship, and that AI-assisted work can still be protected.
  5. Thaler v. Perlmutter · SCOTUSblog, March 2, 2026Supports: The Supreme Court denied certiorari on March 2, 2026.

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General information, not legal advice.

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