Legal Attributes of AI-Generated Images in Copyright Law

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate images has become a trending method of content creation, yet many controversies still surround the legal attributes of AI-generated images. An analysis of the definition of works in copyright law reveals that assessing “originality” is key to determining whether AI-generated images can be recognized as works. The academic community holds both affirmative and negative views on the legal attributes of AI-generated images. Based on this, an analysis of the current two theories from the perspective of originality suggests that the legal attributes of AI-generated images should be comprehensively considered from both subjectivity and objectivity perspectives. This includes taking into account the individual’s subjective contribution to creation and whether the generated images themselves constitute works in the sense of copyright law. Therefore, the core of judging whether the artificial intelligence generated map can constitute a work lies in the degree of correlation between the originality contribution of human beings and the originality of the generated map in the process of artificial intelligence creation. The generated map with a high degree of correlation is the “work”, and its copyright should also belong to the user.