Embracing the future of human-machine integration: determining the degree of human creativity necessary for AI-generated images to secure copyright protection

<p dir="ltr">This thesis begins by analyzing the copyright issues of AI-generated images in the United States and China and explores the question: what degree of human creativity is necessary for AI-generated images to qualify for copyright protection? Generative artificial intelligence (AI), despite its impressive capabilities, remains a tool ― essentially computer software. Collaboration between humans and computers will become a routine creation practice, with the ultimate goal of achieving human-machine integration. This trend will lead to the indivisibility of the two: AI and human contributions will become inseparable in both the creative process and outcome, and it will become increasingly challenging to distinguish AI-generated works from those solely created by humans. However, if determining authorship requires a thorough analysis of the creative process on a case-by-case basis, the cost of this analysis surpasses the benefits for most works.</p><p dir="ltr">To refrain from differentiating between the contributions of AI and humans, a potential compromise is limiting the scope of 'works of authorship' to cases where the benefits of examining the creative process outweigh the associated costs. Given that generative AI has significantly enhanced the creative capabilities of humans, the baseline for economic incentives should be raised accordingly, resulting in an overall elevation of the originality standard. Another strategy for reducing transaction costs is to minimize reliance on a comprehensive examination of the creative process, focusing instead on the final creative outcome when evaluating originality. This approach further supports shifting the evaluation of originality from an objective criterion centered on the creator to a subjective criterion focused on the work itself. Consequently, this thesis proposes that the scope of 'works of authorship' be restricted to literary and artistic works that reflect the author's genuine personality. Meanwhile, a thin protection would be offered to those creations that lack the personality required by the originality standard.</p>