Opinion Column: Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law

Who Is the Author in the Digital Age?

Just a few years ago, artificial intelligence was seen as an experiment. Today, it has become an integral part of everyday life. This development is forcing the law to reconsider its own boundaries. AI is writing texts, creating images, music, design, and video, increasingly entering fields that were traditionally considered exclusively human.

For society, this appears as a technological breakthrough, but for the legal system, it represents a serious challenge. The entire framework of copyright law has historically been built around a simple idea: the author is a human being.

Today, this assumption is being tested by algorithms. If a work is created with the involvement of AI, who owns it? The user who formulated the prompt? The developer of the model? The company that owns the platform? Or perhaps no one at all?

Copyright Does Not Function Without a Human

In most legal systems, copyright arises only when there is a human creative contribution. This is a fundamental principle: an author is a legal subject capable of conscious choice, creative intent, and legal responsibility.

That is why AI, even the most advanced systems, cannot be considered an author. An algorithm has no legal personality, bears no responsibility, and cannot execute creative intent in the legal sense. This position has been repeatedly confirmed in practice.

The full version of the article: is available in the original language on the Ukrainian media Ekonomichna Pravda here.

Author: Yuliia Leshchenko, intellectual property expert with international practice in Ukraine and the United States.