Fact · Voice and AI
The US Copyright Office says that using AI tools to assist human creativity, rather than to stand in for it, does not affect whether the output can be protected by copyright.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“The use of AI tools to assist rather than stand in for human creativity does not affect the availability of copyright protection for the output.”
Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability, United States Copyright Office, U.S. Copyright Office, 2025, Executive summary, conclusions.
Open the original- What it measures
- The report is the Office's second part of a study on AI and copyright, issued in January 2025. It applies US copyright law, and it treats a human author's creative choices as the basis for protection.
- What it does not show
- This is a US copyright statement about protectable expression. It is not a rule about academic integrity, plagiarism or what a school or employer will accept as your own work.