Can A Robot Hold a Copyright?

You can’t have original expression without intent, and you can’t have intent without self-awareness.

Whether playing chess or building a car, a robot today can do almost anything a human being can – and with greater speed or proficiency. Indeed, in 2018, the list of activities that remain exclusive to humans is growing short.

“Artificial intelligence” is a trendy, catch-all term for software applications and algorithms that approximate or impersonate human activities including thinking and problem solving.

In the media world today, “AI” can compose music as well as generate reports on financial results and baseball games. While these may sound or look much the same as similar works by humans, the media AI is able to produce in 2018 is distinguished by an absence of expression or intention.

Put another way, the robot song lacks soul – and this has important legal implications, notes David Davis of Copyright Clearance Center. “When works created by self-running software applications become more common, the result is both more possibilities and more challenges to existing copyright law,” he explains in a recent Velocity of Content blog post.

“When it comes to the rights of an AI itself, I think the key issue would be intent. Logically speaking, you can’t have original expression without intent, and you can’t have intent without self-awareness. Despite popular articles warning about the coming of AI, a working program with awareness of its own existence and operations is still a long way off.”

From April 7-15, 2018, the US marks National Robotics Week (RoboWeek), a series of grassroots events and activities aimed at increasing public awareness of the strength and importance of the U.S. robotics industry and of the tremendous social and cultural impact that robotics will have on the future.