JD Supra reports on a significant ruling from the Beijing Internet Court in Li v. Liu, where an AI-generated image created with Stable Diffusion was deemed eligible for copyright protection. The court found that the plaintiff, who crafted the prompts and refined the image, was the legal author due to his intellectual investment in the creative process. The decision emphasized the human choices involved in selecting parameters and refining the final image, reflecting personal aesthetic judgment.

This decision diverges from the position of the U.S. Copyright Office, which generally denies copyright to works created solely by AI. The court held that as long as an AI-generated work embodies a human's original intellectual contribution, it can be protected under copyright law. The ruling sets an important precedent in China and adds a human-centric perspective to the global debate on AI and intellectual property.