Computer Scientist Petitions US Supreme Court to Decide AI Copyright

Computer Scientist Petitions US Supreme Court to Decide AI Copyright
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Computer scientist Stephen Thaler has formally petitioned the US Supreme Court to determine whether creative works produced entirely by artificial intelligence are eligible for copyright protection, according to JURIST.

Thaler’s petition challenges a 2025 DC Circuit Court decision which upheld the position of the US Copyright Office that copyright protection is reserved exclusively for works with human authorship.

The case centers on an artwork titled “A Recent Entrance to Paradise,” which was created autonomously by Thaler’s machine-learning system, the “Creativity Machine.” The lower courts rejected the copyright application, establishing that “human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright” under US law, as Thaler had listed the machine as the sole author.

Thaler is asking the Supreme Court to answer one question: whether works created entirely by an AI system, without direct authorial contribution from a natural person, can be copyrighted. He argues that the interpretation requiring “human authorship” is an imposition not explicitly found in the Copyright Act itself, potentially leaving a growing category of AI-generated innovation without legal protection.