In today's episode, we examine the case of Steven Thaler trying to copyright protect a piece of artwork generated by his instructions to an AI creation engine. We'll start with Joel's overview of the case.The Thaler case is interesting for a couple of reasons. One is obviously that it deals with AI, but it is also an extension of existing legal principles. I mean, the long and short of it is, was that Stephen Thaler applied for a copyright with the Copyright Office. He indicated that he was the claimant, but that the author was essentially his creativity machine. This was essentially some code that he developed in an effort to create an image. The Copyright Office rejected his application on grounds that, at least as applied for, there did not appear to be any human authorship.And, oh, backstory, one of the requirements of the Copyright Office, as recently as earlier this year in February, is that human authorship is necessary for subject matter that is amenable to being copyrighted in the United States.

In today’s episode, we examine the case against Michael Cohen, former Trump legal advisor, whose own counsel was exposed in a New York Times article on December 29, 2023, for using ChatGPT, non-existence legal citations in a court filing. The interesting twist to the story is that Cohen, himself, provided those citations to his counsel. I’ll let lawyer Joel MacMull explain the details, before technologist Shannon Lietz and I jump to add our thoughts on the case. Background: Michael Cohen gave his then lawyer, some fictitious citations that he had identified from Google BARD, that of course were non existent, and of course we revisited this issue in the summer when, uh, and this is I think entirely coincidental, there was a plaintiff's lawyer by the name of Schwartz that got in trouble from Judge Castell in the Southern District of New York for serving up to the court essentially fictitious citations.