Does copyright protect original work from AI-generated content?

patenting artificial intelligence - UK update

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a much debated topic so far this year, particularly with the rise of ChatGPT and Siri being used to generate content. 

Copyright and AI have existed in harmony for some time, however the advancement of AI and its potential impact on the creative industry is now under the spotlight.  Does copyright adequately protect original works from AI-generated content, or are intellectual property laws in need of modernising?

Copyright law

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 creates a special category of “computer generated” works that is afforded copyright protection in the UK.  This provides copyright protection to work defined as “generated by a computer in circumstances such that there is no human author of the work”, and in these special circumstances the author “shall be the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work are undertaken.”

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