With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), we are witnessing the birth of many creative works in fields such as music, literature, software, and art. This raises legal and intellectual property questions about copyright for AI-generated works. Specifically, can AI be considered a legal author or intellectual property rights should belong to the programmer or AI owner? This is an issue that is of strong concern by experts and the creative community, especially in some countries where there are no clear regulations on the handling of works created by AI. making it difficult to determine the ownership and protection of these works.
1. Current situation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the field of computer science, the research and development of systems capable of performing tasks that often require human intelligence. As of now, ChatGPT (by OpenAI) is said to have over 800 million users[1] in the world (according to data as of July 2025), creating a “fever” of technology and questioning the ability to replace some human jobs
IT can be divided into many types, from simple systems such as chatbots to complex models such as deep learning and machine learning. The ultimate goal of ICT is to create machines or software that can automate tasks and improve work performance. In today’s life, AI has been widely applied in many fields, specifically in the following fields:
About music: AI can compose new music on its own based on basic human commands, combining and transforming available melodies, chords, and rhythms to produce new products. AI can write music automatically, assisting music writers and producers to create new products, new melodies or short songs, soundtracks for movies, games, or for creative projects tailored to human requirements. Artists can also use AI as a tool to create additions, to get ideas or enhance their compositions, and collaborate with AI to develop new songs. In addition, for the field of background music for digital content: AI can generate background music for videos, games, advertisements, or other multimedia products, saving time for content producers and developers.
For example, AIVA (Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist) is an AI system that can compose classical music, helping composers create music for movies, video games, or even music events. Most recently, the movie “The Devil Enters the Intestines” has created a wide discussion on social networks when the film crew revealed that all songs and voices are AI (Artificial Intelligence) implemented by AI[2]. It is known that a part of the audience is quite excited about the intersection of technology and art, said that this is a breakthrough in the film industry. Conversely, many are concerned that the over-reliance on AI could overshadow the emotions and creativity that are at the core of art.
In literature, AI tools such as GPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer) can write speeches, articles, novels, poetry, and even film scripts,… Some AI applications such as Chat GPT are capable of generating text with natural language NLP (Natural Language Processing) and huge text data that can assist writers in writing reports, novels, poetry and more movie scripts completely, AI can also suggest words, story, or even continue to write a paragraph that the writer is writing, which helps authors speed up the creative process and overcome creative barriers, because AI understands the user’s wishes and knows how to create text that suits the user’s requirements.
For example, users can enter a topic or an outline, and the AI will automatically generate the entire work. This is useful for publishers or authors who want to quickly produce a lot of content. According to the Jerusalem Post, Mr. Isaac Herzog – President of Israel gave a special opening speech at the Cybertech Global Tel Aviv 2023 cybersecurity conference on February 1. In front of nearly 20,000 spectators, he revealed the opening written by ChatGPT itself.[3]
Accordingly, Mr. Herzog became the first national leader to use ChatGPT for his speech. Previously, this AI tool was highly appreciated by many figures, including Bill Gates. ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI, launched at the end of November 2022. When a question is sent to ChatGPT, the model will conduct analysis and search in the “learned” knowledge base to respond in the most reasonable way.
About art: Artworks from AI have appeared on exhibitions and can even be auctioned at high value, like two paintings called “Edmond de Belamy”[4] and “The Butcher’s Son” created by an AI algorithm that were sold at Christie’s.
More than just an artist support tool, AI can also create independent works of art without human intervention, with Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) that can create images, paintings, and other works of art by learning from the data provided. The result can be the same as the works of famous artists or completely new.
Prominent examples such as: The painting “Edmond de Belamy” is one of the best examples of AI-generated artwork is “Edmond de Belamy”, a painting created by the Obvious artist team with the help of AI – created using the GANs algorithm and sold at Christie’s, one of the prestigious auction houses, for $432,000, which caused a big surprise and opened up a discussion about the artistic value of AI-generated works.
Software: AI is used to write software code, helping to automate the programming process and create new software because the outstanding ability of AI in the software industry is the ability to write code automatically. AI tools that can automatically generate code based on user input requirements such as GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex, and Tabnine use AI to help programmers write code more quickly and accurately. In addition, AI has many other capabilities such as testing, testing software, detecting bugs or bugs, and can even fix errors automatically, helping to test the user interface, find potential errors that can be missed by programmers, code optimization, etc. Automated Software Development, game development, enterprise application development.
In addition to the above fields, AI has been a major breakthrough for humans, works that not only show the creative ability of AI but also open up many questions about copyright, artistic value and the role of humans in creation.
2. Legal issues in intellectual property for AI-generated works
Nowadays, AI can create literary works using algorithms, so determining copyright faces great difficulties, especially in countries where there are no clear regulations on the handling of AI-generated works. This makes it difficult to confirm ownership and protect these works, The most important question is who owns the copyright to these works. Can AI be a legitimate author? Who owns the copyright? If AI uses copyrighted work to create a creative product, can it be considered a copyright infringement? Can the AI programmer – the owner or developer of the AI be the copyright holder, since they are the one who created the AI system? Or can AI users – AI users who create works can also be considered copyright owners if they provide inputs or control the AI’s creative process?.
From the perspective of Intellectual Property law, countries around the world have different regulations on copyright protection for works created by artificial intelligence (AI), most typical countries only grant copyright to humans. So far, the copyright has been widely recognized in almost every country around the world. Accordingly, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been conducting research and discussing legal solutions that aim to both not deprive technology developers of their rights and ensure that AI-based creative products are properly protected. Some countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States have also begun to make proposals for adjusting intellectual property laws to adapt to the development of AI, although there is still no complete and consistent solution globally.
The copyright law of the United Kingdom stipulates that, in Article 9(3) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988[5]), it is specified as follows: “In the case of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work which is computer-generated, the author shall be taken to be the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work are undertaken.”
Roughly translated as “In the case of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work created by a computer, the author is the one who makes the necessary arrangements for the creation of the work”. In simpler words, the authors of AI works will be programmers or technology engineers. In addition, Article 178 of the CDPA 1988 states: “[…] computer-generated”, in relation to a work, means that the work is generated by computer in circumstances such that there is no human author of the work; […]” this has concretized the concept of AI-generated works understood as “Works generated by computers in the absence of a human author of the work”, such works will be protected for 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which they were created under Article 12(7) of the CDPA 1988: “If the work is computer-generated, the above provisions do not apply and copyright expires at the end of the period of 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was made”.
Not to be outdone, Japan is also an active country in the development of AI artificial intelligence in parallel with perfecting the law on Intellectual Property. In 2017, an artificial intelligence called Shibuya Mirai was granted citizenship by the country and recognized by a local registry for residency in Tokyo[6].
However, this country still refuses to protect copyright for products from AI artificial intelligence, because according to the current copyright law, products from AI do not meet the conditions according to the analysis of “thoughts” and “emotions”, so the country does not consider products created by artificial intelligence as an asset.
In the United States, according to 17 U.S.C. § 102(a) of the United States Copyright Law: “Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this title, in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.” [7]
Roughly translated as “Copyright protection exists, as provided for in this title, for the author’s original works fixed on any tangible medium, existing or later developed, from which the work may be perceived, reproduced or communicated in any way, directly or with the help of machinery or equipment.” Therefore, only original works with human authors and shaped in tangible objects are protected by copyright for scientific works created by artificial intelligence will not be protected by copyright, because the United States believes that creative authors must be human beings by intellectual labor and creation. For works that are not created by humans or things that exist in nature will not be registered for copyright protection by the United States Copyright Office (USCO), but works created by AI with human contributions will be recognized as copyright for humans.
Being well aware of the issue of intellectual property protection, over the years, Vietnam has also made progress in raising the spirit of protecting intellectual property rights in general and copyright in particular. In fact, determining the copyright owner is not simple. The current law also does not have a clear view on this issue, leading to many obstacles in protecting and encouraging creativity for AI works.
According to the provisions of Article 13 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005 and Article 6 of Decree 22/2018/ND-CP clearly stated: “Organizations and individuals whose works are protected by copyright include the person who directly created the work and the copyright owner specified in Articles 37 to 42 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005.”[8] and “An author is a person who directly creates part or all of a literary, artistic and scientific work.”[9]
Based on the above provisions, copyright can only be protected for a “person” – a certain individual. AI – not human, incapable of legal rights and obligations, and therefore not copyrighted. Currently, Vietnamese law only recognizes two groups of subjects entitled to copyright: (i) the person who directly creates the work, that is, the individual who has subjective creative activities and (ii) the copyright owner in the cases of transfer, agreement, contract or in accordance with the law (such as the work created under the official affairs or labor contracts). Therefore, AI artificial intelligence does not belong to any group of subjects, the basis comes from the “human” factor in legal regulations. AI cannot be a “person” with the capacity for civil acts to directly create in a legally conscious way, nor can it be a copyright owner because it does not have the capacity to own or sign contracts. Therefore, AI has no civil legal capacity, no civil acts, and is not recognized as an independent legal subject, so AI cannot be legally authored.
Thus, neither Vietnamese law nor world law recognizes the copyright of artificial intelligence directly related to the issue of handling copyright infringement, and the reason lies in the basic legal principles. The author is a person who has the ability to be creative, has the capacity for civil act law and will be the subject of legal responsibility, most of the legal regulations of countries in the world stipulate that the author must be a human, because AI is not conscious, There are no legal rights and obligations, so it cannot be held responsible if the work is illegally copied. When the infringement issue occurs, it is necessary to determine who is the victim and who is responsible, if the AI is recognized as copyright, it will be very difficult to determine, who is the subject with the right to sue? And who will be the person who will be compensated if an infringement occurs? Therefore, the law currently only allows AI drivers or significant creative contributors to be considered owners to have a legal basis to handle violations. The non-recognition of copyright for AI helps the law still protect human rights, while maintaining the ability to handle infringements of the national legal system. In addition, Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law has not yet specifically stipulated the mechanism for handling acts of infringement of intellectual property rights in the digital environment. The copying, distribution or copyright infringement of intellectual products in cyberspace is increasing, while current regulations are not enough to control, especially for products created by AI.
3. Potential legal solutions:
To solve this problem, lawmakers can consider some specific solutions as follows:
a. Revise copyright regulations, update intellectual property laws to clearly define copyright for AI-generated works, and recognize ownership or related rights for AI drivers.
Advantages & Disadvantages: Changing the regulations of the law opens up a new opportunity, and also has a strong impact on the economy, especially for AI engineers. On the other hand, AI is a tool, created by humans – not humans, so determining who is an “AI driver” in order to qualify for copyright recognition can be controversial because many parties can be involved in the process of creating the work (AI programmers, data importer, algorithm selector, instructer), the delimitation of responsibilities and benefits is quite complicated.
b. Determine legal liability when AI spontaneously generates works. Updated the guidelines for handling infringement, clear on how to evaluate the unauthorized copying or use of AI works.
Advantages & Disadvantages:AI is not a legal entity, it is difficult to determine who is responsible, the AI owner may be legally responsible for all works that AI generates, even if they do not directly control the creation process.
c. Consider the regulation of granting copyright to programmers, AI owners, or even granting copyright to AI, then the creator of the algorithm or AI system is the person who is legally responsible for the work created by AI, or the AI owner – the organization or individual who has invested in the development and operation of the AI system if the AI is considered a creative tool, then intellectual property rights can belong to the AI owner.
Advantages & Disadvantages: Granting permissions to AI programmers (i), AI owners (ii), or directly to AI (iii) all have the same advantage of being easy to identify the right holders. However, for granting rights to (i) AI Programmers who do not directly create specific works, if multiple programmers are involved, the division of rights is complicated; (ii) For AI owners (individuals or organizations) AI can create a variety of works, determining the scope of ownership and liability for each work is difficult; (iii) For the direct grant of rights to AI, AI is not a subject that can be legally responsible for itself, it is necessary to have a special mechanism to assign rights to relevant people.
d. Bound by Contracts and legal agreements, the parties may use contracts or agreements between the parties to regulate intellectual property rights to AI works, including assigning ownership rights to the programmer or AI owner.
Advantages & Disadvantages:Difficulty in identifying the real subject, if many parties involved in AI development (programmers, investors, operating organizations), determining who owns the work created by AI can be complicated, when there is no clear contract, disputes are easy to occur.
e. Digital copyright stamp to identify the AI work and prove ownership.
Advantages & Disadvantages: Digital copyright marking requires standardized technical tools and processes, especially with the large number of AI works today. However, the legal systems of countries around the world do not have clear regulations on this recognition as legal evidence for ownership. It can be seen that in a dispute, if only digital marks may not be enough, more evidence is needed about the process of creating the work, AI ownership, etc.
f. Copy Storage and Metadata: Helps prove when to create and who drives the AI.
Advantages & Disadvantages:For example, in AI works, metadata may be able to provide information about the work such as: Information about the creator/author (programmer or operator of AI); Time to create the work; The AI version is used; Information about the creator/author (AI programmer or operator); Conditions or parameters when the AI generates the work. However, metadata can still be edited or tampered with if it is not protected by secure technical mechanisms such as digital signatures or Blockchain (this is a distributed database where transactions or information are recorded as “blocks” linked together and cannot be changed or deleted after they have been recorded). If the metadata is changed, the proof of ownership value decreases. Similarly, the legal systems of countries around the world do not have clear regulations on this recognition as legal evidence for ownership.
4. Conclude
AI is a powerful creative tool that has the potential to expand the boundaries of creation. However, the current legal framework still has many gaps, especially in terms of determining copyright for AI-generated works. Developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States and WIPO are looking for solutions to balance encouraging innovation and protecting the rights of people to create. Any future regulatory framework needs to respect the contribution of system operators, AI development engineers, and final composers through input control and the authoring process.
Particularly for Vietnam, the issue of AI copyright may not have been focused on so far, but it is clear that the way the law deals with new types of creations created by machines and AI will have a profound impact on trade. The widespread use of artificial intelligence to create works increasingly poses new challenges in the field of intellectual property, and although current legislation does not yet regulate issues related to artificial intelligence, the identification of copyright owners for creative products from AI will soon have to be done by makers. The law considers to have appropriate regulations in the innovation period. In other words, in order to adapt to the development of technology, legal regulations need to be updated and clarified to protect the interests of all stakeholders in the process of artificial intelligence creation.
Mai Thi Ngoc Thao
Trademark Department
INVESTIP – IP LAW FIRM
[1] Number of ChatGPT users (July 2025) – link: https://explodingtopics.com/blog/chatgpt-users
[2]The Devil is a movie that is of interest to a large audience – link: https://www.saostar.vn/am-nhac/nhac-phim-quy-nhap-trang-gay-tranh-cai-vi-thuc-hien-toan-bo-bang-ai-202503100926066458.html
[3]The first president to use ChatGPT to write a speech – link: https://vnexpress.net/tong-thong-dau-tien-dung-chatgpt-viet-bai-phat-bieu-4566685.html
[4]Painting by AI was auctioned for $432,000 – link: https://vnexpress.net/tranh-do-ai-ve-duoc-dau-gia-432-000-usd-3829837.html
[5] Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 – link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/12
[6]Tokyo Prefecture Grants Residency Rights to Artificial Intelligence Robots – link: https://vnexpress.net/quan-o-tokyo-cap-quyen-cu-tru-cho-robot-dung-tri-tue-nhan-tao-3665609.html
[7] Copyright Law of the United States – United States Copyright Law – link: https://www.copyright.gov/title17/title17.pdf
[8] Article 13 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005 – link: https://chinhphu.vn/default.aspx?pageid=27160&docid=30015
[9] Article 6 of Decree 22/2018/ND-CP detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the 2005 Intellectual Property Law and the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the 2009 Intellectual Property Law on copyright and related rights – link: https://vanban.chinhphu.vn/default.aspx?pageid=27160&docid=193017
