© Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
Copyright is the legal right that protects original creative works, like articles, pictures, software etc. It gives the creator control over how their work is used, shared, and reproduced.
The use of AI tools introduces new questions, as for example, whether AI-generated content is protected by copyright, and whether the material used to train or prompt the AI was legally sourced. That's why you have to always consider copyright when working with or producing content through AI tools.
AI-generated material in general
For a work to be protected by copyright, it must be created by a human or by a legal entity, such as a company, organisation or institution, acting on behalf of a human creator.
As AI-generated content, texts or images created without significant human input, lacks a human author, it is not subject to copyright.However, there may be restrictions on how the specific AI-generated material can be used.
For example; While OpenAI allows commercial use of images generated with DALL·E, certain features like ChatGPT Voice Output are restricted to non-commercial use only (2025-05-07).
Three key questions to ask when using AI
ⓘ Copyright status
Is the data you want to use protected by copyright?
ⓘ Permission to use with AI
Do you have the right to analyse or process the data using AI?
ⓘ Terms of use
What do the AI tool’s terms of use say?
Contact us
Have questions about using AI at SSE? Feel free to get in touch with the library.
Email: library@hhs.se
Phone: 08-736 90 00
Chat: Look for the icon on the right edge of your screen when we're available.
Staffed hours
Monday–Friday: 10:00–15:00
Weekends: Closed