Artificial Intelligence and ownership
The advancement in technology has paved the way for many innovations in the academic landscape, making complex things easier for academicians and students than before. One of such innovations is the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This new invention called Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the creative landscape and challenging traditional copyright frameworks that have […]
The advancement in technology has paved the way for many innovations in the academic landscape, making complex things easier for academicians and students than before. One of such innovations is the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This new invention called Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the creative landscape and challenging traditional copyright frameworks that have historically focused on human authorship.
As AI-generated works become increasingly common, legal systems worldwide are confronted with urgent questions about originality, ownership, and liability.
Again, as AI continues to make it easier for lecturers and students to handle complicated work within a few seconds without investing more effort thinking, the ease has now arrived without them realising how greatly AI is eroding their creativity while making them intellectually reluctant and weak. Then I sat down and began to think, suddenly, a question now came to me like this: if AI can do this much damage to human creativity, how much more harm could it do to authorship and ownership of creativity?
Artificial Intelligence has gradually taken the right of authorship and ownership from human intellectual to technology. As it continues reshaping creative industries, unresolved legal issues are emerging that could alter the future of innovation, ownership disputes, and the broader enforcement of intellectual property rights. AI is not just a tool but it is an intruder into the sacred space where human thought meets expression. Copyright law, that was once a cornerstone for protecting the labour of human intellect, now finds itself challenged by works created without a human heartbeat. Most legal systems still hold on to the principle of human authorship, yet some are beginning to entertain more flexible policies, policies that may one day crown machines as creators.
This is where the real danger lies. In a situation where I, as a writer, use AI to write a chapter of a book or write a poem, who would now be the author and owner of the work? Is it the artificial intelligence (AI)? The programmer? The user? Or does it belong to no one at all? In countries like the United States, the law is clear: copyright belongs only to humans, and purely AI-generated work has no legal protection. But in places like the United Kingdom and China, the boundaries are less defined; the person directing the AI process or crafting the prompts may be considered the “author.” This inconsistency means that what is protected in one country could be public property in another, making the global creative economy a fragile web of conflicting rules.
Beyond the law, there is a deeper wound the gradual fading of the human voice in creativity. AI feeds on vast databases of human works books, images, often without the creators’ consent. In return, it generates outputs that replicate, blend, and sometimes overshadow the original. This raises a painful question for every writer, artist, and thinker: if my work can be replicated and remixed without recognition or reward, what is the value of my labour? And if young creatives grow up relying on AI for expression, will they ever truly discover their own voices?
The truth is, we stand at a crossroad. One path leads to a future where AI and human creativity work hand in hand, with laws and ethics ensuring respect, attribution, and fair reward. The other leads to a world where the concept of authorship dissolves, ownership becomes meaningless, and human stories are drowned out by an endless stream of machine-made content. If we are to protect the soul of creation, we must act now.preserving the irreplaceable human touch that gives meaning to every word, brushstroke, and note.
Emmanuel Toma is a student, Department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri