The Legal Gray Area of AI Co-Writing: Who Owns What?

AI Co-Writing Ownership: Copyright Law is Still Catching up to AI Development

If you're old enough to remember the development of the World Wide Web, then you'll remember that things were happening faster than laws around the globe could prepare for these new developments.

Now, we're in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), and once again, the use of technology is outpacing legal systems worldwide. The affected areas are more extensive than we can discuss here, so we'll stay within our lane and focus on how AI is impacting the world of music.

A development that seemed to happen overnight was the emergence of AI tools that could write songs, create musical tracks, and even produce astonishingly human-like vocals—even sample and imitate famous singers.

Suddenly, anyone could become a songwriter. In minutes, you can have a finished and recorded song to call your own with no songwriters, vocalists, musicians, or producers required. But not so fast...

Just when people thought they could get rich overnight with an AI-composed song, the U.S. Copyright Office applied the brakes, setting strict limits on what kind of AI creations could be copyrighted. This has left many songwriters confused about AI song copyright laws and who owns AI music.

If you use AI to help write a song, are you the writer? Can you copyright AI co-writes? Does the AI own a share? What about the company behind the tool?

Welcome to the legal gray area of AI co-writing, where copyright law is still catching up—and creators are left with more questions than answers about legal rights with AI-generated songs.

Let's unpack what's happening, what the current guidelines are, and how to protect yourself when using AI in your songwriting process.

1. AI Can't Be an Author (At Least for Now)

The U.S. Copyright Office has made it clear:

Only humans can hold copyrights.

That means:

A fully AI-generated song cannot be copyrighted.
Any “contributions” made by AI are not considered authorship.
If a song was written entirely by AI, no one owns it—not even you.

But here's where AI and songwriting law get tricky...

2. If You Contribute Significantly, You Can Claim Authorship

If you use AI to generate material and then:

Rewrite the lyrics
Restructure the melody
Make creative decisions
Add original vocal or instrumental performances

Then your contributions may be protected. But you'll need to disclose what the AI did and clearly distinguish your work from the AI's.

3. Song Registration Requires Transparency

If you're registering a song with the U.S. Copyright Office:

You must list yourself as the author of the human-made portions.
You cannot claim authorship over AI-generated parts.
You must disclose the role AI played in the creation.

Falsely claiming authorship of AI material may result in your registration being invalidated later.

4. What If You're Collaborating With Someone Using AI?

Let's say you co-write with another person, but they use AI tools without disclosing it. Suddenly, the work is part-human, part-AI—and you may not know which is which.

To protect yourself:

Ask what tools are being used in every co-write.
Decide together what's AI-assisted and what's human-made.
Document who did what—this helps resolve any future disputes.

Transparency now prevents legal headaches later.

5. How to Protect Your Rights When Using AI

Here's a simple checklist:

✅ Rewrite everything AI gives you so it reflects your creativity.

✅ Keep track of what came from AI vs. what you contributed.

✅ Don't rely on AI tools to “finish” the song—only to inspire it.

✅ Consider adding a declaration of your human contributions to support your copyright registration.