Artificial Intelligence and Automated Content Creation: Copyright Scenario in India

Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) has constantly evolved over the years and has become of significant use in today’s times as an automated content creation tool in the digital world. AI programmes can create automated literary content in a faster, consistent and cheaper way as compared to the creation of content by a human. However, with the benefits of using these tools, one cannot oversee the concerns that arise in the intellectual property domain. There remains a lack of clarity in the law as to whether the authorship and ownership of works that are automated content would be granted to the AI or the user of such technology. This paper focuses on the issue of authorship and copyright ownership in the works generated by AI in India. In this paper, after an introduction to the concept of automated content creation, it is proposed that as AI is not a natural person and cannot exercise most rights associated with copyright by itself, AI should be treated as a co-author along with the user of the AI. The owner of the copyright in the automated work will be the user of such AI technology. In addition, the paper further suggests certain amendments to fill the vacuum in the Copyright Act, 1957 with respect to authorship, ownership of the copyright in automated content, as well as other liabilities that may arise in cases of intellectual property infringement caused by the content generated by AI. This paper further addresses the need for the introduction of new policies and regulations to resolve issues revolving around liability and accountability in cases of defamation, libel and other civil and criminal wrongs.