Lesson 1 of 6
Who owns AI art?
6 min read
You typed a few words, the AI made a gorgeous image, and you want it on a T-shirt. It feels like yours. But does the law agree — and can you actually sell it?
A prompt might not be enough
In the US, copyright protects human authorship. A work that's purely AI-generated — you typed a prompt, the model made the picture — generally isn't automatically yours to copyright, because a prompt alone isn't treated as authoring the result. The more real human creativity you add — editing, arranging, combining — the stronger your claim gets.
Copyright rewards human authorship; a prompt alone usually isn't enough to own the output.
Read the tool's terms, too
Even setting copyright aside, the app you used has its own rules. Some grant you broad commercial use of what you make; others restrict it, especially on free tiers. So "can I use this?" has two locks: what the law grants you, and what the licence you agreed to allows. Check both before anything commercial.
Two locks on AI output: copyright law and the tool's licence. A pretty result clears neither by itself.
For anything you'll sell or brand, check the tool's licence and add genuine human authorship — don't assume a raw AI image is yours to own. (General explanation, not legal advice.)
The gist
- —US copyright needs human authorship — a pure prompt-to-image output usually isn't automatically yours.
- —The more real creative work you add, the stronger the claim.
- —The tool's licence is a second, separate lock — read it before commercial use.
You typed a one-line prompt and the AI made an image. In the US, who automatically owns the copyright?
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