The US Copyright Office has upheld its previous decision, ruling that AI can’t receive a copyright for art it creates.

The copyright application was filed by Steven Thaler on behalf of his “Creativity Machine.” Thaler has been on a crusade to get AI recognized as inventors and artists. In September 2021, a US judge denied his attempt to file a patent on behalf of an AI “inventor.”

Similarly, in November 2018, Thaler had filed a copyright for a piece of artwork created by his AI algorithm. In August 2019, the US Copyright Office denied his application, which he appealed. The Copyright Office has now considered the appeal and upheld its original ruling.

After reviewing the Work in light of the points raised in the First Request, the Office reevaluated the claims and again concluded that the Work “lacked the required human authorship necessary to sustain a claim in copyright,” because Thaler had “provided no evidence on sufficient creative input or intervention by a human author in the Work.”

The Copyright Office’s decision is a blow to Thaler and proponents of AI.