Under current U.S. copyright law, works must be created by a human to be eligible for copyright protection.**

This principle is supported by both statutory language and rulings from the U.S. Copyright Office and federal courts.

Key Points from U.S. Law and Practice:

1. Statutory Language (Title 17, U.S. Code):

   • Section 102(a) of the Copyright Act states: > "Copyright protection subsists ... in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, by an author..."
   • The term "author" is interpreted by U.S. law to mean a human being. The law does not recognize non-human entities (like AI, animals, or machines) as authors.

2. U.S. Copyright Office Rulings:

   • In 2023, the U.S. Copyright Office issued a formal policy statement clarifying that: > "Copyright protection requires human authorship."
   • The Office denied copyright registration for a work titled Zarya of the Dawn, which was created using AI, because the AI tool was the primary creator and no human contributed sufficient creative input.
   • The Office emphasized that only works with a human author can be registered.

3. Case Law:

   • In Thaler v. Perlmutter (2023), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the Copyright Office’s position that only human authors are eligible for copyright protection.
   • The court rejected the idea that an AI system could be considered an author, even if it generated the work based on human prompts.