US Copyright Office Clarifies that AI-assisted works can be registered for copyright

• The US Copyright Office has issued new guidance on protections for art, music, and other works created with the assistance of artificial intelligence, stating that AI-assisted works can be registered for a copyright if there is sufficient human authorship. While AI cannot be considered an author, it can be part of the creative process, and artists can select or arrange AI-generated materials in sufficiently creative ways, or modify something AI-generated to such a degree, to merit copyright protection.

• However, this creates an ambiguity that is ripe for different interpretations, and it is difficult to determine where the line between human and AI authorship lies.

• The guidance also raises questions about when a prompt entered into a program can qualify for copyright protection, which may result in a whole subset of issues arising in the future.

• Ultimately, it will likely fall to the courts to determine the level of human contribution necessary for AI-assisted works to be registered for copyright protection.

• The guidance suggests that the extent to which the human had creative control over the work's expression and actually formed the traditional elements of authorship is what matters, and that material generated from a copyrightable prompt is not necessarily copyrightable.

• See the statement here

AI can outperform most law school graduates on bar exam

• GPT-4, an upgraded AI model released by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, scored 297 on the bar exam in an experiment.

• This places GPT-4 in the 90th percentile of actual test takers and is enough to be admitted to practice law in most US states.

• The newer GPT-4 got nearly 76% of the bar exam’s multiple-choice questions right, up from about 50% for ChatGPT, outperforming the average human test-taker by more than 7%.

• The bar exam assesses knowledge and reasoning and includes essays and performance tests meant to simulate legal work, as well as multiple choice questions.

• The study authors suggest that large language models can meet the standard applied to human lawyers in nearly all jurisdictions in the US.

PwC Employs AI Platform for Legal Professionals, Partnering with Startup Harvey

• PricewaterhouseCoopers will give 4,000 of its legal professionals access to an AI platform for legal work.

• The company partnered with AI startup Harvey for an initial 12-month contract to help lawyers with contract analysis, regulatory compliance work, due diligence, and other legal advisory and consulting services.

• PwC's access to Harvey's technology is exclusive among the Big Four professional services firms.

• PwC stated that AI will not replace lawyers or provide legal advice to clients.

• Other companies, law firms, and professional services firms are also experimenting with generative AI technology.