With tools like Meta’s new Muse Code, AI programming is moving from suggesting fragments, solutions, or supporting the developer to shaping entire projects. This is a huge shift, but not only because of the shift in workflow, but also because of how the results are protected. Code generated entirely by an AI isn’t eligible for copyright protection in the United States, the same goes for other AI-generated works, which raises a question: how can a company protect its IP in code if its engineers didn’t write it?
The key lies in our creative contribution
A prompt can steer the result, but registering a copyright and the protection it provides is only possible when we select, structure, rewrite, or transform the code through creative decisions of our own. The more human authorship we can demonstrate, the stronger our position will be, and here commits, reviews, and design documents matter a lot.
We saw several months ago with Zarya of the Dawn, an AI-created comic, that it lost its Copyright protection. Case law is becoming clear: our human creative contribution can be protected and nothing more. The same applies to software.
“Vibe coding” changes a company’s value
In many companies, a large part of the value lies in the intellectual property they produce in its code. Here, vibe coding changes things. It can speed up development enormously, but can a company prevent its code, created by an AI, from being reused if it leaks?
For a startup, this directly affects licensing, investment planning, and the potential value of future acquisitions. AI can be an extraordinary tool, but if it owns the code we use, be careful…
