this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday ⁠to take up the issue of whether art generated by artificial intelligence can be copyrighted under U.S. law, turning away ​a case involving a computer ​scientist from Missouri who was ​denied a copyright for a piece of visual art made by his AI system.

Plaintiff Stephen Thaler had appealed to the justices after lower courts upheld a U.S. Copyright Office decision that the AI-crafted visual ⁠art ‌at issue in the case was ineligible for copyright protection ⁠because it did not have a human creator.

Thaler, of St. Charles, Missouri, applied for a federal copyright registration in 2018 covering “A Recent Entrance to Paradise,” visual art he said his AI technology “DABUS” created. The image shows train tracks entering ‌a portal, surrounded by what appears to be green and purple plant imagery.

The Copyright Office rejected his application in 2022, finding that creative works must have human authors ​to be eligible to receive a copyright. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration had urged the Supreme Court not to hear Thaler’s appeal.

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 22 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

If you want to call yourself an artist, do the work yourself, Stephen.

You limpdick, no talent ass clown.

[–] msfroh@lemmy.ca 13 points 19 hours ago (5 children)

My understanding is that he did do the work of creating the AI. This isn't just someone using ChatGPT.

In this case, it's not that he's trying to claim copyright for himself based on coming up with a prompt. He's spent years applying for patents and copyrights with the AI listed as the creator.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DABUS

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 11 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

He can copyright his software then? That's like saying that if I create a computer game where the computer also plays, I own the copyright to every single game played by the computer. It's just dumb. They stole the artwork that it was trained on, so move along thief.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 7 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

Is there any literature that actually says DABUS exists? Everything I see online is talking about the spectacle of Stephen Thaler claiming it made something - and trying to patent it in several different countries across multiple continents - not how (or if) DABUS exists or functions.

DABUS stands for "Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience," which sounds... suspicious.

[–] msfroh@lemmy.ca 5 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah... Checking his website at https://imagination-engines.com/founder.htm, he certainly seems like an "interesting" character.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

In other words, it's not that he as the human operating the "AI" is trying to claim copyright in his own name, it's that he's trying to set a precedent where the "AI" can hold copyright in its own name.

He's trying to pretend that his glorified pile of statistics is sentient, and get it legally recognized as such. 🤡

[–] msfroh@lemmy.ca 8 points 17 hours ago

Exactly.

Most of the comments in this thread are accusing him of trying to take credit for the work of a machine that's just imitating other work. It's the FuckAI echo chamber and people who didn't actually read the article.

In this case, it's more like he's claiming to have created a genuinely creative being that deserves rights previously reserved for humans (like copyrights and patents).

It's a completely different (and IMO, much weirder) story than people are assuming.

It sounds like he has way too much money and time on his hands.

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 0 points 17 hours ago

AI is legally the same as a printing press. It's not the guy that designs and runs the press that owns what comes out of it. And what goes into the AI is large volumes of other people's work, turned into confetti and glued together into something not quite new.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 0 points 16 hours ago

This is not remotely what the case was actually about.