95bFM New Zealand copyright laws in the age of AI
27 August, 2025
Interview by Faith Ward, adapted by Soeun Kim
Amid the concerns of AI and human work in today’s digital age, the University of Auckland’s Alex Sims emphasises the protection of original works and copyright under New Zealand law.
As AI has become more and more prevalent in people’s lives, concerns have been raised about its potential to replace human roles.
Generating content from stored databases has blurred the lines between original human work and technology-produced work.
This has created confusion regarding ownership, authenticity, and how copyright works in this space, which has resulted in legal cases overseas.
In June, Meta, the company that owns Facebook, won a case over 13 authors whose work was used to train Meta’s Llama AI models.
Overseas, countries are also proposing legislation to equip citizens to counteract the harms of AI. In July, Denmark proposed a law to allow citizens copyright over their faces, bodies, and voices, over concerns of AI-deepfakes.
Alex Sims, an Associate Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Auckland, told 95bFM’s The Wire that AI-generated work is under limited legal protection in the country as it holds very little value compared to real human work.
“In New Zealand, the level of originality will also dictate the breadth of protection. So the more original something is, the wider it is protected,” she says.
According to Sims, if a copyright case regarding AI and human art were to come up in Aotearoa, she believes our copyright laws would prioritise original human work.
She expresses strong opposition to AI-generated artwork and the potential consequences it can have on human artists.
“... if something's AI-generated, I and other people think it's worthless.
“But, if you are a real artist, you don't want to be creating art that looks as though it's being created by AI, because if it looks like it is, then it's worthless.”
Sims says that the rise of copyright violation in the art industry is rooted in industrialisation and mass production, which has overshadowed the value and quality of hand-made products.
Ultimately, Sims says that the jeopardisation of human artists’ careers is inevitable, as evident in history.
“So, back 100-odd years ago, there were lots of musicians; musicians everywhere, because there was no recorded music.
“… then when recorded music came along, they didn't need to have live players all the time. So the number of musicians, they just lost their jobs.”
She says that using computers to generate any form of work, such as graphic art, can always be targeted to AI reproduction. In light of this, she suggests we should be aware of the constant technological shifts shaping the environment of the arts.
