Author

Sun Jingzhou, Assistant Professor,Renmin University of China Law School;  Research Fellow, Law and Technology Institute

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded across diverse contexts and stages of cultural creation. Its collaborative creation paradigm and large—scale production mechanisms are reshaping the modes of production and organizational structures of the content industry, while progressively weakening the intrinsic linkage between the economic value of artificial intelligence—generated content and human creativity. Traditional copyright regimes are manifestly ill-suited to address these transformations. Granting artificial intelligence—generated content a sui generis form of protection, alongside copyright, can jointly establish a “tiered” protection framework for creative content. Such a framework would institute a differentiated incentive structure calibrated to the degree of human creative labor involved, encouraging technological investment while safeguarding the normative priority of human creativity. On the basis of establishing rights of varying strength and accessibility distinct from copyright, it is further necessary to reallocate rights and responsibilities through mechanisms such as rights attenuation, open licensing, and “safe harbor rules”. These measures would guide technology toward socially beneficial outcomes, secure the public’s fundamental interests in access to cultural resources and participation in digital value creation, and lay an institutional foundation for the coordinated advancement of human and machine creativity.

Keywords:artificial intelligence-generated content;sui generis rights;tiered protection;safe harbor rules;open licensing