A legal battle over AI copyright that has gone on for more than a decade may have reached its end, with the US Supreme Court declining to hear a case involving AI-generated visual art.

The subject of the case is an image created by computer scientist Stephen Thaler in 2012, titled «A Recent Entrance to Paradise,» using an AI tool he also created, DABUS. Thaler applied for a copyright for his visual art in 2018, but the application was eventually rejected by the US Copyright Office on the grounds that creative works must have human authorship to be eligible. A district court later upheld the decision.

Thaler’s legal team argued that because he created the system that generated the artwork, he is, in effect, its author.

«Other countries, like China and the United Kingdom, already permit copyright protection for AI-generated works. But the Copyright Office’s reliance on its own nonstatutory requirements have led to an improper cabining of United States copyright law in contradiction of this Court’s precedent that copyright law should accommodate technological progress,» the filing alleges.

«The Copyright Office believes the Supreme Court reached the correct result, confirming that human authorship is required for copyright,» a spokesperson said.

The question of who owns AI-generated artwork and what AI work violates existing copyrights is an important one as AI companies develop increasingly sophisticated image generation tools such as Nano Banana 2 from Googleand video generation tools such as OpenAI’s Sora 2.

While these kinds of tools are making it harder to distinguish between human-generated art and material created by or with AI, they’re also enabling a flood of AI slop across the internet. Tech companies and social media networks have been struggling to find ways to deal with the influx, including using metadata to label AI content and creating better filters to keep unwanted slop away from their users.

A ‘philosophical milestone’ for AI and copyrights

In an email to CNET, Thaler said that although the court declined to hear his appeal, «I see this moment as a philosophical milestone rather than a defeat.»

While he’s unsure if legal action will continue, Thaler says he’s still certain that the law on copyright, as written, is intended to exclude nonhuman inventors.

«By bringing DABUS into the legal system, I confronted a question long confined to theory: whether invention and creativity must remain tied to humans or whether autonomous computational processes could genuinely originate ideas,» Thaler said.

He previously alleged to the court that the Copyright Office’s decision would cause a negative impact on AI development and its use by creative industries in the formative years of the technology’s development.

He warned that the Copyright Office’s current rules could create a «perfect storm» of low-quality AI-generated content that will continue to flood the internet and a wave of lawsuits from humans claiming ownership over work they didn’t create.

«The law is lagging behind what technology can already do,» Thaler said. «The court addressed what the statute currently allows. It did not address what technology has already achieved.»

Like it or not, AI is everywhere. If ChatGPT isn’t the topic of conversation around you at work or at home, you’re hearing about it in the news and through other companies. Though it’s ubiquitous, however, it’s important to remember that it isn’t an all-knowing digital deity. It is, in fact, prone to offering misinformation and making mistakes. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t skip using it at all. 

You should play around with AI to see its possibilities and limits. Be curious, experimental and have fun with it. There are some things you definitely shouldn’t use ChatGPT for, such as health diagnoses and legal decisions, but there are plenty of tasks and to-dos it’s great for.

ChatGPT isn’t alone out there. You can also use other chatbots for these tasks, like Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude and Perplexity. And because AI has the propensity to hallucinate answers, draw the wrong conclusions or make things up entirely, be sure to always double-check and use common sense whenever it gives you information.

Here’s a look at nine of the best things to use AI chatbots for. 

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

1. A beefed-up search engine 

I heard somewhere that millennials use ChatGPT as a search engine, while Gen Z uses it more as a «life advisor.» I’m showing my age here, but I love using it as a search engine on steroids. 

It’s really handy to be able to learn about a specific topic from one information interface. I use it for both quick answers to questions and in-depth topical research. 

ChatGPT’s Agent Mode can also run specific searches for you while you’re doing something else. 

2. Beauty and style advice 

This one’s fun. If you’re stuck on what lipstick suits your skin tone, what haircut is best for your face shape or how to accessorize an outfit, ask ChatGPT. 

You can upload a selfie and ask it for beauty advice or even how you’ll age (and what you can do about it). Ask who your doppelganger is.

3. Menu planning 

You can tell ChatGPT what’s in your fridge and pantry, and it’ll make a menu. This is a good little hack in this economy, especially with the holiday season coming up, and when your fridge is full of leftovers. 

You can also do other fun things, like take a photo of a menu at a restaurant and ask for the best wine pairing, if your server doesn’t beat you to it. 

4. Redesigning a room 

Whenever I try to create a cool art design in AI, it always falls short. But uploading a photo and asking it to redesign a room? Nails it. 

I prompted ChatGPT with the problems I was having with the space and what I envisioned for it, then it «redesigned» it within seconds. 

Try it with a room, an area or a nook that you want to jazz up in your home. It might not be perfect, but it will give you ideas on placement, paint colors, furniture and vibe. 

5. In your job search 

We all know how horrid the job market is right now, so you should absolutely leverage AI if you’re on the hunt. 

You can use it as a career coach, to find current openings, feed it job links and ask it to tell you why you’re a good candidate, create cover letters and refine your resume. Always edit your cover letter and resume and pepper it with your personality. Avoid sounding like everyone else using AI. 

6. To research people 

If you’re preparing for a job interview, talking to a potential client, meeting someone at a networking event, going on a date or wanting to look up an actor while watching TV, ChatGPT is a great way to find them. If I have a call coming up, I usually ask ChatGPT to «tell me everything I need to know about this person and their background.»

It can also help to find contact details, but always fact-check and be respectful. For example, I asked ChatGPT who someone was, and it gave me a name and email within seconds.

7. Tech troubles 

We’re all surrounded by so much tech, but not all of us have a handy spouse or tech support on call. I’ve turned to ChatGPT for issues like missing meeting recordings, storage issues on my MacBook, setting up YouTube on my TV, and whether my constantly humming fridge needs to be fixed. 

I wouldn’t try my hand at plumbing or anything electrical-related, but it’s helpful to troubleshoot tech.

8. Travel research 

I’m one of those people who thinks travel planning is part of the trip. I love researching destinations, looking at accommodations, comparing flights and planning things to do. 

ChatGPT can come in handy, especially in destination research. I haven’t had much luck using it to find cheap flights, but it’s awesome to ask about certain neighborhoods to stay in, the best times to visit, planning itineraries and getting travel tips. 

9. (Some) personal advice 

ChatGPT is an awesome thought partner, but just be wary about its people-pleasing tendencies. It’ll agree with you, unless you prompt it not to. Also, chatbots have nothing on your BFF or partner, who actually know what’s good for you. 

But if you can keep this in mind, it’s a handy «life advisor.» You can talk through a problem you’re having, role-play with it, ask it for advice, plan a career move, ask it to unpack the tone of a message and use it as a guide while going through something. In my case, I leaned on it while I was going through my first round of IVF.

A word of warning: ChatGPT uses a predictive model, so its «advice» is based on what you’ve told it before. It’s not going to «think» outside the box, so confirmation bias is a concern. 

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