In the context of increasingly developing technology, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a powerful tool in creating works of art, music and literature. The explosion of AI has raised many questions about intellectual property rights, especially copyright for works created by it. So, does Vietnamese law protect copyright for works created by artificial intelligence? The following article from VCD will help you.
1. Overview of Artificial Intelligence
According to John McCarrthy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the term artificial intelligence is explained as follows: “It is the science and engineering of creating intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It involves tasks similar to using computers to understand human intelligence”.
In the simplest terms, artificial intelligence is the “intelligence” of computers programmed by humans to help computers simulate human intelligence and mimic their activities. This term can also be applied to any machine that exhibits characteristics related to the human mind such as learning, decision making or problem solving. To perform these mental simulation activities, artificial intelligence combines computer science and powerful data sets.
Artificial intelligence is divided into 3 types:
- Narrow AI: is a type of artificial intelligence designed to perform a specific task or a narrow set of tasks.
- Strong AI: is a type of artificial intelligence that is capable of understanding and performing a range of tasks similar to humans, especially the ability to think, self-learn and apply knowledge to new situations.
- Superintelligence: This is a form of artificial intelligence that far surpasses human intelligence. It represents an artificial intelligence system that is absolutely intelligent and superior to human capabilities in all aspects.
2. Conditions for copyright protection
According to the Berne Convention and the provisions of Clause 7, Article 4 of the Vietnamese Intellectual Property Law, the concept of “work” is defined as “a creative product in the field of literature, art, or science expressed in any means or form.” At the same time, Clause 3, Article 14 stipulates that a protected work “must be directly created by the author through his or her intellectual labor without copying from another person’s work.”
Expressed in a certain form:
The law recognizes that Copyright is only established when a work is created and expressed in a certain material form such as audio recording, video recording, rewriting, reading, etc. Therefore, if the creative result only stops at the idea in the author’s mind, and has not been expressed in a material form, it cannot be considered a copyrighted work.
As a result of creative spiritual activities:
To be protected by copyright, a work must be based on the process of thinking, learning, creating, reflecting the thoughts and feelings of the creator. In other words, the work must be a creative product with content and spiritual value of the author.
The work must be original:
“Originality” requires that the work must be independently and directly created by the author without copying from another subject. Originality does not require the work to have high content value or unique artistic quality, but it must create the author’s own mark through the content or form of expression of the work.
3. Does Vietnamese law protect copyright for works created by artificial intelligence?
AI, in essence, is an intellectual product created by humans, developed through the form of robots or other tangible machines, to reduce human labor. AI applications, such as floor-sweeping robots or chess-playing robots, perform work in a stereotypical manner according to human settings.
Pursuant to Clauses 1, 2 and 6, Article 4 of the Law on Intellectual Property, it is stipulated that:
Interpretation of terms
In this Law, the following terms are construed as follows:
1. Intellectual property rights are the rights of organizations and individuals to intellectual property, including copyright and rights related to copyright, industrial property rights and rights to plant varieties.
2. Copyright is the right of organizations and individuals to works they create or own.
6. The subject of intellectual property rights is the owner of intellectual property rights or the organization or individual to whom the owner transfers intellectual property rights.
In addition, Article 13 of the current Law on Intellectual Property stipulates that copyright subjects include: Vietnamese organizations and individuals; foreign organizations and individuals whose works are first published in Vietnam but have not been published in any other country or are simultaneously published in Vietnam within thirty days from the date the work is first published in another country; foreign organizations and individuals whose works are protected in Vietnam under international treaties on copyright to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member.
Based on the above provisions, it can be seen that Vietnamese law only identifies copyright subjects as individuals and organizations, but does not recognize artificial intelligence (AI) as a subject of copyright.
Therefore, works created by artificial intelligence in Vietnam are not protected by copyright. This means that creative products created by AI are not recognized as intellectual property rights.
Above is the article “Does Vietnamese law protect copyright for works created by artificial intelligence?” that VCD sent to you. We hope this article is useful to you.
