Legal experts grapple with copyright when it comes to works created using artificial intelligence
- Legal experts differ over whether the lack of copyright protection for AI-created works will help or hinder the development of the technology
Creating art is a common way for humans to express themselves – and it is usually protected by copyright laws – but what if artificial intelligence (AI) did the same? If a writer used AI to complete Cao Xueqin’s famous unfinished Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber, who should own the copyright? Cao Xueqin, the writer, or the AI algorithm?
“So far, there is no law specifically addressing ownership of AI-created work [in China],” said Liu Wenjie, a law professor at the Communication University of China. “The court can decide the authorship of the content by applying the general provisions of the law or by legal interpretation when there is a dispute. Of course, this can cause uncertainty. ”
Several legal experts who spoke to the Post agreed that artificial intelligence, at its current stage of development, should not be considered a “legal person” that can own a work.
“It would be quite problematic to give AI the right to own its work legally. To do that, you need to make the AI an independent legal person, which not only has legal rights but bears legal responsibilities,” said Jyh-an Lee, associate professor of law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).
There are signs that AI, which China has widely adopted for applications from surveillance to education, will be applied to the creative arts field as well. Earlier this year Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies used AI software, together with human composers, to complete Franz Schubert’s eighth symphony, while Tencent, whose music service is No 1 in China, announced a partnership with AI music start-up Amper.
Spotify’s director of its Creator Technology Research Lab François Pachet also recently wrote on his LinkedIn page that he was developing “the next generation of AI-assisted music composition tools”.