The U.S. Copyright Office is examining how copyright law applies to artificial intelligence, including AI-generated works, digital replicas and the use of copyrighted material to train AI systems. Its ongoing initiative could influence creators, technology companies and AI users across the United States.
AI-generated material may receive copyright protection when sufficient human creativity is involved.
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has opened a new and complex debate in the United States over copyright, authorship and the use of protected works to train AI systems. The U.S. Copyright Office launched a major initiative to examine these issues and determine whether changes to copyright law or additional federal action may be necessary.
The initiative began in 2023 with a public inquiry that generated more than 10,000 comments from creators, technology companies, publishers, academics, lawyers and other stakeholders. The Copyright Office is using that material to examine unresolved legal questions and provide guidance to Congress, courts, government agencies and the public.
Although the original public-comment deadlines have passed, the issue remains highly relevant. The Copyright Office continues to analyze artificial intelligence and copyright through a multi-part report covering AI-generated works, digital replicas and the use of copyrighted material to train generative AI systems.
AI, Copyright and Public Policy in the United States
The Copyright Office’s AI initiative has several objectives. It examines the current legal framework, identifies unresolved questions and evaluates whether legislative action may be appropriate.
The information gathered through the initiative is also intended to help the U.S. Congress, courts, government agencies and the public understand the legal implications of increasingly sophisticated AI systems.
The Office’s study is particularly important because artificial intelligence is now used across numerous areas, including journalism, music, visual arts, education, business, software development and entertainment.
For Brazilians living in the United States, the debate can also affect people who create content, operate businesses, work in creative industries or use AI tools professionally.
What Does Copyright Protect When AI Is Involved?
One of the central questions is who can be considered the author of a work created with artificial intelligence.
The Copyright Office has already clarified an important point. Under its current position, AI-generated material may be protected by copyright when a human author determines sufficient expressive elements of the resulting work. Simply providing prompts to an AI system, however, is generally not enough by itself to establish human authorship.
This means that using AI as a tool does not automatically prevent copyright protection. Human creativity, selection, arrangement or modification can remain relevant when determining whether a work qualifies for protection.
The distinction is therefore between AI assisting human creativity and AI determining the expressive elements of a work.
The Copyright Office addressed this issue in Part 2 of its Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, released in January 2025. The report concluded that existing copyright principles are flexible enough to address generative AI and that there was not sufficient justification for creating a separate copyright protection for purely AI-generated material.
What About AI Training and Copyrighted Material?
Another major issue is how copyrighted works may be used to train generative AI models.
AI systems can be developed using enormous collections of text, images, music, books, news articles and other materials. This has generated disputes over whether copying copyrighted works during the development and training of AI models can qualify as fair use under U.S. copyright law.
The Copyright Office’s Part 3 report, released as a pre-publication version in May 2025, examines this issue in detail. It analyzes where copying may occur during AI development, how fair use may apply and whether licensing systems could provide an alternative framework.
As of 2026, the Copyright Office’s official AI initiative page continues to list Part 3 as a pre-publication version, with a final version still expected. The Office says that no substantive changes are expected in its analysis or conclusions.
The question remains especially important because lawsuits involving AI companies and copyright holders continue to test how existing copyright principles apply to AI training.
Who Is Responsible for Copyright Infringement?
Another cornerstone of the debate is copyright liability for AI-generated content.
The use of copyrighted works to train generative AI remains one of the most important unresolved issues.
Consider a hypothetical situation in which an AI model produces material that closely resembles a copyrighted work and the use does not qualify as fair use. Who should be responsible?
Possible questions include whether responsibility should fall on:
- The person who instructed or used the AI system;
- The company that developed the AI model;
- The developers responsible for the system;
- The parties responsible for assembling or licensing the training data; or
- More than one party, depending on the circumstances.
These questions are becoming increasingly important as AI-generated text, images, music, video and software become more common.
The Copyright Office’s work does not automatically determine liability in individual lawsuits. Instead, it provides an analytical framework for policymakers and courts dealing with these increasingly complex disputes.
The Three Parts of the U.S. Copyright Office AI Report
The Copyright Office’s AI initiative is being developed through three major areas of study:
Part 1: Digital Replicas
Published in July 2024, Part 1 examined unauthorized digital replicas — realistic but falsely generated representations of individuals — and recommended federal legislation addressing the issue.
Part 2: Copyrightability
Published in January 2025, Part 2 examined when works containing AI-generated material can receive copyright protection. The Office emphasized the importance of human creativity and concluded that simply entering prompts into an AI system is not sufficient by itself to establish copyright protection.
Part 3: Generative AI Training
Part 3 focuses on the use of copyrighted works to train generative AI systems. The May 2025 pre-publication version examines copying, fair use, licensing and potential liability. The Copyright Office’s current website continues to identify this version as pre-publication.
Public Comments and the AI Copyright Debate
The original public-comment period is now closed. The Copyright Office’s 2023 Notice of Inquiry initially sought public input on issues including AI training, transparency, disclosure, AI-generated outputs, copyrightability and the treatment of AI-generated material that imitates human artists.
The Office received more than 10,000 comments by December 2023, providing input from a broad range of stakeholders.
Therefore, readers should not rely on the original 2023 deadlines that appeared in the first version of this article. The public-comment stage has already concluded, but the policy debate continues through the Copyright Office’s reports, congressional activity, court cases and future regulatory developments.
Why AI and Copyright Still Matter
The debate over artificial intelligence and copyright is far from settled.
The technology continues to evolve faster than many existing legal frameworks, while creators, publishers, musicians, artists, software developers and technology companies are trying to determine how traditional intellectual-property rules apply to AI.
Recent copyright disputes involving AI training demonstrate why the issue remains important. In 2026, for example, major U.S. publishers and technology companies continued to face litigation over whether copyrighted books, news articles and other content can be used to train AI systems under the fair-use doctrine.
For creators and AI users in the United States, the practical lesson is simple: using AI does not automatically eliminate copyright protection, but the amount and nature of human creative contribution can matter significantly.
The legal landscape will continue to evolve as the Copyright Office, Congress and U.S. courts address questions involving AI training, authorship, licensing, fair use, digital replicas and copyright infringement.
The original 2023 inquiry was therefore only one step in a much larger process that continues to shape the relationship between artificial intelligence, creativity and copyright law in the United States.
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FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can AI-generated content be copyrighted in the United States?
Yes, in some circumstances. Copyright protection can apply when a human author determines sufficient expressive elements. AI-generated material without sufficient human creativity generally does not receive copyright protection.
2. Does simply writing a prompt give me copyright over an AI-generated image or text?
Generally, no. The Copyright Office has said that providing prompts alone does not establish the human authorship necessary for copyright protection.
3. Can AI companies use copyrighted works to train their models?
There is no single blanket answer. The legal question can depend on the circumstances, including whether the use qualifies as fair use. The Copyright Office’s Part 3 report specifically examines this issue.
4. Can someone be sued for copyright infringement because of AI-generated content?
Potentially, depending on the content, how it was created and used, and whether copyright law was infringed. Courts continue to address disputes involving AI-generated material and AI training.
5. Is the U.S. Copyright Office creating a new AI copyright law?
Not by itself. The Office is studying the legal issues and providing analysis that can inform Congress, courts and policymakers. Its AI initiative is examining whether additional legislative or policy action may be necessary.
