Contemporary Artificial Art and the Law

AI as an “autonomous author” urges the law to rethink authorship. Policy makers should consider a reformative conception of AI in copyright law looking at innovative theories in robot law, where new frames for a legal personhood of artificial agents are proposed.

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The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an “autonomous author” urges the law to rethink authorship, originality, creativity. AI-generated artworks are in search of an author because current copyright laws offer as a solution only public domain or fragile regulatory mechanisms.
During the 20th century visual artists have been posing persistent challenges to the law world: Conceptual Art favoured legal mechanisms alternative to copyright law. The case of AI-art is, however, different: for the first time the artworld is discovering the prospective of an art without human authors.
Rather than preserving the status quo in the law world, policy makers should consider a reformative conception of AI in copyright law and take inspiration from innovative theories in the field of robot law, where new frames for a legal personhood of artificial agents are proposed.
This would have a spill-over effect also on copyright regulations.