Following Generative AI Down the Rabbit Hole: Redefining Copyright's Boundaries in the Age of Human-Machine Collaborations

Abstract

In a world where human creativity intertwines with the power of artificial intelligence, the very essence of authorship is being called into question. Originally conceived of as a dialogic relation between authors and pre-existing culture, the insertion of generative AI within the creative realm has introduced a new web of nested relationships - between human authors, AI, and its developers - that are redefining the ontology of authorship; reshaping how we both pursue and produce knowledge.

And while the question du jour might be whether copyright could recognize the human-machine collaborations that arise from these interactions, a far better one is whether it should. Our position should not be based on whether such creations fulfill what have become the very minimal requirements for enjoying copyright protection. Nor should it be founded on whether these creations draw on unauthorized copies of pre-existing works. Rather, it should rest on whether human-machine collaborations pursue the dialogic qualities that copyright as a construct was designed to promote.

This inquiry, however, necessarily requires a deep examination into copyright doctrine as it now stands; a reimagination of copyright's most intrinsic principles through a dialogic lens. And that's precisely where I commence my journey down the human-machine collaboration rabbit hole. I begin by reframing copyright's approach to originality and infringement from a dialogic perspective, identifying creative autonomy as copyright's central governing principle and laying the groundwork for a more nuanced understanding of authorship in the digital age. I then build upon this conceptual framework, exploring the barriers to creative autonomy arising from the various relationships that culminate in human-machine collaborations. By elucidating copyright's role in shaping the power dynamics inherent in these relations, I conclude by illustrating how reimagining copyright's boundaries can go a long way in attenuating many of generative AI's impediments to creative autonomy; in embracing a more inclusive vision of authorship that permits all forms of creativity to flourish on the peripheries of cultural officialdom.