Supreme Court denies appeal in AI-generated art case [View all]

Source: Courthouse News Service

March 2, 2026


(CN) — The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear arguments on whether an artificial intelligence machine could claim copyright authorship for an autonomously generated piece of art.

The high court’s decision leaves standing a D.C. Circuit ruling in favor of the U.S. Copyright Office, which held that human authorship is a fundamental requirement under the Copyright Act of 1976.

Stephen Thaler, a computer scientist, sought a copyright for the AI-generated art piece “A Recent Entrance to Paradise” in May 2019. Thaler listed his software, the Creative Machine, as the artwork’s sole author and himself as the work’s owner. The Copyright Office denied Thaler’s application under the 1976 law.

Thaler argued on appeal that judicial opinions from “the Gilded Age” could not settle the complex questions that arise when artificial intelligence intertwines with human creativity. U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia A. Millett, a Barack Obama appointee, wrote in a unanimous opinion last year that the Copyright Act was written to make “humanity a necessary condition for authorship.”

Read more: https://courthousenews.com/supreme-court-denies-appeal-in-ai-generated-art-case/