Intellectual property body eyes guidelines for AI-generated artwork

Inquirer file photo

MANILA, Philippines — The government’s intellectual property (IP) rights body said on Monday that it was looking into drafting a set of guidelines for local artists about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in their work, including a system for determining how much of a product partially generated by the technology could be copyrighted.

Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) Director General Rowel Barba said they would discuss this with other government agencies and stakeholders in the coming days.

“We are hopeful that the Philippine government will be able to come up with one AI regulation. It appears that the different government agencies are doing their own but hopefully, we’ll be able to integrate and consolidate all those guidelines in one measure,” Barba said in a press conference during the 2nd Philippine International Copyright Summit 2024 held in Quezon City.

READ: AI Copyright: Who Owns AI Artworks?

Barba said the current policy was that copyrightable works require that these should be made by a “natural person.”

“We require disclosure in our application form whether or not it was made by a machine or a person. So, we do not register those made by machines,” he said, adding that they also require information on how much of the product was done by AI.

Emerson Cuyo, director IV at the IPOPHL’s Bureau of Copyright and Related Rights, noted that there were issues over creations that were partially generated by the technology.

“That’s where the confusion is and that’s where guidance will come,” Cuyo said.

According to Barba, they hope to address this in the guidelines by setting a threshold or limit.

When asked if they have a starting number in mind, he replied, “None yet. That is something that we have not agreed on.”

Barba said they would also launch a copyright registration system to offer an easier way for checking copyright registrations filed with them.

“This will be updated monthly with future plans to slowly include copyright registrations filed in the National Library of the Philippines. In the long run, we hope to create a truly unified, national copyright registry for the Philippines,” he added.

Likewise, he said they are also working toward being designated as a registration agency that uses international standard name identifiers (ISNI), which are used by libraries, publishers, databases, and rights management organizations around the world.

“Once IPOPHL is able to issue ISNI to local authors, artists, and organizations, they could be more easily found, [and] their works can be more easily tracked, possibly no less by investors who could provide additional income streams to our artists and expand the creative endeavors of creative companies,” said Barba.