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7h ago

Supreme Court Declines Thaler AI Copyright Case, Leaving Human Authorship Requirement Intact

The decision leaves in place U.S. rules that exclude works created without qualifying human input.

Stephen Thaler's A.I.-generated artwork A Recent Entrance to Paradise. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Copyright Office.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Overview

  • On March 2, the Supreme Court denied review of Stephen Thaler’s bid to copyright an image he says was autonomously generated by his AI system DABUS.
  • The refusal keeps intact a 2023 district court ruling and a 2025 D.C. Circuit decision upholding the Copyright Office’s rejection of the application.
  • Federal guidance maintains that only works with human authors qualify for protection, including a policy that images produced from text prompts are not registrable.
  • The Trump administration urged the Court not to take the case, arguing the Copyright Act’s term “author” refers to a human rather than a machine.
  • Thaler’s related efforts to patent DABUS‑attributed inventions were previously rejected by the Patent Office and courts, reinforcing treatment of AI as a tool rather than a legal creator.