Kenya Tribunal rules AI works cannot be copyrighted
Anyone hoping to monetise AI‑assisted content will need to keep meticulous records of their own input and demonstrate how their originality shaped the final work.
Kenyan creators seeking to claim ownership and profit from content generated by artificial intelligence have been dealt a reality check by the Copyright Tribunal. While AI can assist in the creative process, the Tribunal ruled that works produced by machines cannot attract copyright protection, nor be registered as original creations.
This was the awakening experienced by Cynthia Beldina Akoth, the author of Bible Scripture Stories, who had used AI to generate content for a company that had contracted her. She soon realised she could not protect the works from commercial exploitation by third parties as her own original creations.
