The Doctrine of Originality in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Rethinking Authorship and Ownership under Tanzanian Copyright Law

The growth of Artificial Intelligence has become one of the most defining technological revolutions of the 21st century. AI can be defined as systems or machines that mimic human intelligence to perform tasks and can iteratively improve it based on the information it collects. In Tanzania, the copyright law grants economic and moral rights to the creators of original works. Its foundation lies in human intellect and creativity; content is protected only when authored by a human being. Despite AI tools such as ChatGPT and visual art generators reshaping the creative landscape, the Tanzanian copyright law centres on human creativity. Using doctrinal analysis, primary and secondary data collection methods, as well as benchmark insights from the United Kingdom and United States, this article argues that the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act [Cap. 218 R.E. 2023] is inadequate to address human-AI co-created works. In the US, the Copyright Office has begun publishing detailed reports on copyright issues raised by AI. The US emphasises that human creativity is central, and that there must be some human involvement meaningful enough to meet originality thresholds. United Kingdom on the other hand, the United Kingdom Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 specifically provides for the recognition and authorship of computer-generated works. The study concludes that the Tanzanian copyright framework assumes human authorship, and it lacks definitions or rules for AI-only or hybrid works. Therefore, it recommends legislative amendments to recognise AI-assisted works and clarify joint ownership thresholds for works co-authored by a human being and AI to align Tanzanian copyright law with technological realities.