It is currently unclear whether AI models can be copyrighted. While the US Copyright Office has issued a statement of policy indicating that works including human-authored elements combined with AI-generated images are copyrightable, it is not clear whether works created solely by AI are protected by copyright. Additionally, the use of copyrighted materials to train AI models is considered fair use, but the intersection of copyright law and AI is still a developing area and there are ongoing legal challenges and debates on this topic.

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