AI as an author: intellectual property law in the age of AI-generated creativity

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the legal challenges presented by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly regarding authorship and copyright protection. As AI systems increasingly produce literary, artistic, and musical works without direct or with minimal human input, traditional intellectual property frameworks are proving insufficient to address this new reality. This paper examines whether AI systems are capable of being creative beyond mere imitation or statistical generation, and in a way that satisfies the legal criteria traditionally reserved for human authorship. Through a comparative analysis of civil and common law jurisdictions —including the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China—this paper examines the anthropocentric foundations of copyright law. It also analyzes whether AI -generated outputs me et the threshold of originality, as well as how these jurisdictions define and attribute authorship. Finally, it considers philosophical, economic, and socio-cultural arguments for granting protection to AI -generated works and explores possible doctrinal solutions for authorship attribution.