South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on Wednesday that it would not register copyright for content generated by artificial intelligence (AI), giving a clear answer to the controversial question of whether the creativity of such content should be legally recognized. The decision comes amid an ongoing global debate over the legality of artificial intelligence as a creative entity.
South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which oversees national copyright protection policies, has been discussing the development of useful guidelines for cultural industry players facing challenges in the AI era.
The ministry said on Wednesday that it had decided not to allow copyright registration for artificial intelligence content that was not created by humans after intense discussions.
Only ideas that clearly convey human thoughts and emotions are likely to be registered, the department added. This decision will be announced soon in the "AI Copyright Guidelines" for AI companies, copyright owners and users.
The guidance also states that AI companies need to provide fair compensation to copyright owners for the right to use their products.
According to key points of the guidelines published by the ministry, copyright owners are advised to clearly express their intentions or take technical measures to prevent their creations from being used for AI research.
Earlier this month, the UK's Supreme Court said in a major ruling that artificial intelligence programs cannot be named as inventors of patents, rejecting the idea of placing machines on a near-equal footing with humans.