The United States Supreme Court will not review a lower court's ruling that art created by artificial intelligence cannot be protected by copyright. The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case on whether art created by AI can be copyrighted, Reuters reported earlier.
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Monday's ruling comes after Stephen Thaler, a computer scientist from Missouri, appealed a court ruling that upheld the ruling that art created by AI cannot be protected by copyright.
In 2019, the U.S. Copyright Office rejected Thaler’s request to copyright an image, titled “A Recent Entrance to Paradise,” on behalf of an algorithm he created. The Copyright Office reviewed the decision in 2022 and determined that the image did not involve “human creation,” excluding it from copyright protection.
Following Thaler's appeal, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howellruled in 2023 that “human creation is a fundamental requirement for copyright.” This ruling was later upheld in 2025 by a federal appeals court in Washington, DC.
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As Reuters reported, Thaler asked the Supreme Court to review the decision in October 2025, arguing that it “creates a deterrent effect on anyone else thinking about using AI creatively.”
Last year, the U.S. Copyright Office issued new guidelines stating that art generated by AI based on text is not protected by copyright.
The Supreme Court's decision follows several attempts by Thaler to claim intellectual property rights and to patent the output of his AI systems. The U.S. federal court similarly decided that AI systems cannot patent inventions because they are not humans, something the U.S. Patent Office confirmed in 2024 with new guidelines, stating that while AI systems cannot be listed as inventors on a patent, humans can use AI-powered tools to develop them.
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The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom made a similar finding in a case promoted by Thaler.
