Increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence (A.I.) is inching further into the mainstream, and nobody is quite sure what to make of it yet. Students protested after university administrators used the A.I. text generator ChatGPT to craft a statement after a mass shooting. Systems like Midjourney can create pieces of art so sophisticated, they can win awards— to the chagrin of flesh-and-blood artists.
Now the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) has weighed in on the debate and determined that images produced by A.I. are not copyrightable.