Upphovsrätt till alster producerade av artificiell intelligens : Alster åstadkomna av AI-system i förhållande till upphovsrättens skyddsförutsättningar

The purpose of this thesis is to study whether works produced by artificial intelligence (AI) can receive copyright protection under the Swedish Copyright Act. AI can be described as computer software built on algorithms which can perform tasks similar to humans. Traditionally, copyright laws have been based on humans creating creative and original works. Computer software, including AI-systems, have previously only been used as a tool for humans in the creation of copyrightable works. However, today’s advanced AI-systems are able to generate works without any human assistance in the creative process. Autonomous AI can produce works fully independent, creatively, unexpectedly and with self-determination. Consequently, independent AI challenges current copyright laws. The first legal challenge is whether works produced by autonomous AI systems are copyrightable as original works. Subsequently, it is unclear who, if anyone, owns the works generated by AI. This thesis argues that the harmonised originality criteria and the requirements for copyright protection under the Swedish Copyright Act are inadequate to cope with works generated by autonomous AI. This paper further states that copyright protection for works produced independently by AI is necessary to create incentives for programmers and end-users to construct and use advanced AI systems. How the originality concept and copyright ownership could be changed to incorporate works generated by autonomous AI under the copyright regime are then discussed. The issue whether copyright protection for works produced by independent AI is something desirable is also addressed