Creativity Machine
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Creativity Machine is the name of the generative AI created by Stephen Thaler that he identified as the sole author of A Recent Entrance to Paradise. His attempt to register copyright in the picture led to Thaler v. Perlmutter, litigation over the Copyright Act's human-authorship requirement.[1]
Registration dispute
Thaler represented to the Copyright Office that the artwork was generated autonomously, without human creative contribution, and claimed ownership through ownership of the machine. On February 14, 2022, the Office's Review Board upheld refusal of registration. It rejected the proposed work-made-for-hire route, including the suggestion that the machine could enter the contractual relationship that theory required.[2]
Court decisions
On March 18, 2025, the D.C. Circuit affirmed the refusal. It held that copyright-eligible works must originate with human authors. It did not decide the Office's constitutional argument, or Thaler's alternative claim that making and using the system made him the author: that claim had been waived before the agency. Ryan Abbott argued the appeal.[1]
The Supreme Court denied review on March 2, 2026. Its docket records a denial of the petition, rather than a merits opinion adopting a new authorship test.[3]
Scope of the example
The administrative record rested on Thaler's description of creation without human authorship. It should not be read as establishing that every work made using an AI tool is ineligible for copyright.[1]
This profile follows the copyright record's name, Creativity Machine. For the system named in Thaler's patent applications, see DABUS.[4]
Related articles
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 D.C. Circuit, Thaler v. Perlmutter, No. 23-5233, March 18, 2025. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ U.S. Copyright Office Review Board, A Recent Entrance to Paradise, February 14, 2022. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ U.S. Supreme Court, docket No. 25-449, March 2, 2026 denial. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ Federal Circuit, Thaler v. Vidal, No. 21-2347, August 5, 2022. Accessed September 12, 2026.