Analysis of the Copyrightability of Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content in the United States

Abstract

The commercial application of generative artificial intelligence has rapidly brought to the fore the structural tension between machine-generated content (AIGC) and the core presuppositions of copyright law concerning the “author.” This paper examines the protection model and legal mechanisms adopted by the United States on the question of AIGC copyrightability. The research finds that the United States, as represented by the Thaler case, strengthens the “human authorship” requirement from the perspectives of constitutional text, statutory interpretation, and incentive theory, and adopts a result-oriented standard centered on expressive control.