Copyright and AI concerns two separate questions: whether AI models may be trained on protected material, and whether what the AI creates is itself protected – and, if so, who owns it.
The legal position is still in flux, but the main lines are clear enough to act on: purely machine-made works are, as a starting point, not protected by copyright – that requires human, creative effort. At the same time, AI output can infringe other people's rights if it comes too close to protected works or imitates an artist's style commercially.
For organisations, this is therefore less a legal project and more a question of hygiene: know the terms of your tools, keep track of what is human-made and what is machine-made in your material, and do not use AI to clone other people's expression.
In practice
Three practical rules go a long way: use tools with a commercial licence, document the human reworking of important material – and never imitate named artists, photographers or trademarks in the prompt.
How to explain it to management
“We only own what we have shaped ourselves. That is why the human reworking is not an extra layer – it is our right.”
The question of rights is also part of the EU's regulatory framework – see the entry on the EU AI Act.