Korea to issue first guidelines for AI-generated content

AI-generated picture [Image source: Adobe Firefly]

Contents generated by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, such as pictures, poems, and novels, will not be able to register as intellectual properties unless they have a human element in their creations, according to a set of guidelines.

According to industry sources on Monday, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is expected to announce the guidelines next week. They represent the first set of rules that draw a line between human and machine creativity and address issues at the intersection of AI and copyrights.

The guidelines clarify that AI-generated works do not qualify as products of authorship and, therefore, are not eligible for copyright registration. They also state that if a human has been involved in the entire design and provided prompts for the AI, copyright registration is not feasible. This principle extends to adaptations produced using AI tools.

The guidelines, however, note that AI-assisted work can be protected when human creativity is involved in the creation.

In a similar decision, the U.S. Copyright Office recently granted a limited copyright registration for an AI-assisted comic book Zarya of the Dawn.

The USCO concluded that the claimed authors were not owners of the comic book as individual images in the comic book were not the product of human authorship but the product of numerous prompts given to Midjourney, an AI-based software.

However, the office approved protection for the text and the arrangement of images, as the elements were part of human creativity.