The Misguided Stance of the Copyright Office on AI-Generated Works

The use of AI image generating tools, like Midjourney, in the creative process has sparked concern. The U.S. Copyright Office has taken the position that the tool (not the user using the tool) is the author. The best example we have is the case of  Kristina Kashtanova’s graphic novel, Zarya of the Dawn, which was partially generated using AI. The U.S. The Copyright Office initially granted her copyright protection but later revoked copyright protection for the AI-generated images in the work for lacking human authorship. 

This reasoning is flawed. Since authorship is a core focus of copyright law, the issue of who the author is when using AI tools needs careful examination.