On February 14, 2022, the Review Board of the United States Copyright Office (the “Board”) refused copyright registration (for the second time) of a two-dimensional artwork entitled “A Recent Entrance to Paradise.” Although the work was an original work fixed in a tangible medium of expression, the Board found that it could not be registered due to a lack of human authorship.

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, refers to the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behaviour. Though it sounds like something out of a sci-fi film, the reality is that AI is quickly becoming a norm in our everyday lives, from the simple AI systems used to sort email inboxes, to complex AI systems known as “Generative Adversarial Networks” (GANs), which can be trained to autonomously produce new products without human input. This has resulted in a new type of intellectual property: AI-generated IP.

Over the past year the House Heritage Committee has been preparing its Shifting Paradigms report which was released in May 2019. The report considers and discusses some of the current challenges and possible solutions pertaining to the ecosystem in which artists work. It also speaks to reinvigorating copyright in Canada. This report is of interest to a broad scope of people including members of the art scene such as musicians and publishers to those in digital media and tech industries.