backOn March 2, 2026, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal addressing whether works generated entirely by artificial intelligence can qualify for copyright protection. The petition sought to overturn decisions by the U.S. Copyright Office and lower federal courts that had rejected the registration of a visual work produced by an AI system, on the grounds that U.S. copyright law requires human authorship.
By refusing to review the case, the Supreme Court allowed the lower court rulings to remain in effect. The U.S. Copyright Office maintains that outputs produced autonomously by generative AI systems are not eligible for copyright protection, although works created with the assistance of AI may qualify when there is a meaningful level of human creative contribution. The decision preserves the current legal interpretation in the United States that works generated solely by automated systems do not satisfy the statutory requirement of authorship.
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