The Shortcomings of the Copyright Office’s Guidance for AI-Assisted Works

AI-assisted artwork poses a simple question: When can an artist using AI tools copyright their work? Early this year, the Copyright Office addressed this issue and rejected the proposition that only prompting an AI model can create a copyrightable work. But their analysis missed that “randomness” for a computer means something entirely different than we generally think, ultimately underselling the amount of control someone can have over the model’s output.

11 minute read November 01, 2025 at 12:11 AM

Dallas Cire

Introduction

AI-assisted artwork poses a simple question: When can an artist using AI tools copyright their work?

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