The rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence has fundamentally transformed the creative landscape, turning text prompts into stunning visual masterpieces in a matter of seconds. Platforms like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion have democratized art creation, allowing anyone to act as a digital director. However, this sudden explosion of algorithmic artistry has triggered a massive legal showdown over AI image copyright (or hak cipta gambar AI), leaving creators, developers, and businesses navigating uncharted legal waters. At its core, the debate splits into two existential questions: can an AI-generated image be protected by copyright, and does training these models on human art constitute copyright infringement?
Under longstanding global legal frameworks, the definitive answer to whether purely AI-generated art can be copyrighted is a resounding no. Copyright law across major jurisdictions has historically been anchored to the concept of human authorship. In the United States, this foundational principle was cemented when the D.C. Circuit ruled in Thaler v. Perlmutter, a stance that the U.S. Supreme Court left standing. The U.S. Copyright Office maintains that text prompting alone does not equal creative control, meaning entirely autonomous machine outputs automatically fall into the public domain where anyone can legally copy or commercialize them.
A similar standard applies within Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, for instance, the governing Undang-Undang Nomor 28 Tahun 2014 tentang Hak Cipta explicitly defines a creator as an individual or group of humans who produce original works through intellect, imagination, and dexterity. Because AI relies heavily on pre-existing data and lacks human consciousness, a 100% AI-generated image fails to meet the legal threshold of personal uniqueness and originality. However, the landscape is shifting. To address this legal vacuum, the Indonesian government is actively drafting a revised RUU Hak Cipta to formally regulate AI-assisted creations, fair use boundaries, and digital platform accountabilities.
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