Copyright, Education, and Generative AI: Getting with the programme?

Generative AI (GenAI) is promising to revolutionise higher education. Whether it concerns legal scholars using ChatGPT to write their essays, computer science majors relying on GitHub Copilot to generate programming code, or art students turning to Midjourney to create visual artistry: the relevant AI tools to assist with educational assignments are readily available online. The ability for students to complete parts of their curriculum by means of automated tools has caused unease in academic communities in light of the growing inability to properly distinguish between honest student work and AI-generated submissions. Academic integrity and plagiarism issues in this context ultimately also lead us to copyright law. For instance, can students claim AI-generated output as their own intellectual creation? Do students expose themselves to liability for copyright infringement when using GenAI output? This blog post – based on our journal article published in the European Intellectual Property Review – takes a closer look at these questions, while also seeking to address the wider tension that exists between GenAI and copyright.