Overview
- The Copyright Office issued a final order dated August 31, 2026 that found the artwork “A Recent Entrance to Paradise” met the originality test under Section 13 but refused to accept the AI system DABUS as its author, and the registration application was rejected because the applicant declined to amend authorship.
- The office applied Section 2(d)(vi), which defines the author of a computer-generated work as “the person who causes the work to be created,” and found on the facts that Stephen L. Thaler had the sufficient nexus to be that person rather than the AI.
- The Registrar said an AI cannot be entered as author because it lacks statutory recognition or legal personality, and noted that recognising DABUS as author would create a new category of technological juristic person that only Parliament can authorise.
- The order also flagged an ownership problem under Sections 17–19 because Thaler named DABUS as author but himself as owner, and the office declined to substitute a human author after Thaler refused the opportunity to amend the application.
- The decision leaves open practical questions about how much human input—for example prompt-writing or curation—is needed to “cause” creation, highlights prior registry inconsistencies such as the 2020 RAGHAV entry, and sets up pressure on DPIIT guidance or legislative change while diverging from U.S. courts that bar AI authorship.