10 Sep Can AI-Generated Content Be Copyrighted in Malaysia?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how businesses, creators and individuals produce articles, images, music, videos and other digital content. But an important intellectual property question remains: Can AI-generated content be copyrighted in Malaysia?
The short answer is: not necessarily. Under Malaysia’s current copyright framework, copyright protection is centred on originality, sufficient human effort and authorship. Content generated entirely by AI, without meaningful human creative contribution, is unlikely to qualify for copyright protection.
At the same time, using AI as a creative tool does not automatically mean that the resulting work is unprotected. The extent of human creativity, skill and intellectual contribution can be important.
What does Malaysian copyright law protect?
Malaysia’s copyright system is governed primarily by the Copyright Act 1987. MyIPO states that copyright can protect literary, musical and artistic works, films, sound recordings, broadcasts, published editions and derivative works. A work must generally be original and reduced to material form.
Section 7(3) of the Copyright Act 1987 provides that a literary, musical or artistic work is eligible for copyright where sufficient effort has been expended to make the work original in character and the work has been written down, recorded or otherwise reduced to material form.
The Act’s definition of “author” also refers to human roles such as the writer or maker of a literary work and the artist in relation to artistic works.
This creates an important distinction between:
- AI-assisted content, where a human exercises meaningful creative control; and
- fully AI-generated content, where the AI produces the expression with little or no meaningful human creativity.
Is fully AI-generated content protected by copyright in Malaysia?
Based on the current position communicated by the Malaysian Government, fully AI-generated works without significant human creativity do not qualify for copyright protection.
In August 2026, Deputy Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Datuk Dr Fuziah Salleh stated that Malaysia’s existing Copyright Act protects works demonstrating originality through human effort, skill and intellectual contribution. She also said Malaysia had not yet recorded a court case involving copyright infringement arising from AI technology.
This means simply entering a prompt into an AI image generator and receiving an image does not necessarily give the user copyright ownership over the resulting image.
For businesses, this is particularly relevant when AI-generated material is intended for commercial advertising, packaging, websites, social media campaigns or other brand assets.
What if a human substantially edits AI-generated content?
The position becomes more nuanced when a person uses AI as a tool but contributes substantial creative input.For example, a designer might:
- generate several AI concepts;
- select and arrange particular elements;
- substantially redraw or modify the image;
- add original typography and graphic elements; and
- create a final composition reflecting their own creative choices.
In such circumstances, the human-created elements and contributions may potentially attract copyright protection, provided the statutory requirements are satisfied. However, it would be risky to assume that every minor edit creates a new copyright work. Simply changing colours, resizing an image or making superficial alterations may not necessarily demonstrate sufficient originality. The key question is therefore not simply “Was AI used?”, but rather “What creative contribution did the human author make?”.
Who owns AI-generated content?
Ownership can be particularly complicated where AI is involved. MyIPO explains that copyright ownership can depend on how a work is created. For example, copyright may belong to an employer where a work is produced under a contract of service, while commissioned works can have different ownership rules. However, ownership rules cannot create copyright in something that does not qualify for copyright protection in the first place. Therefore, businesses should distinguish between:
Ownership of an AI tool/account and copyright ownership in the resulting work.
Having paid for an AI subscription does not automatically mean that every output is protected by Malaysian copyright or exclusively owned by the user.
Can copyrighted works be used to train AI?
This is another major issue. In August 2026, the Government stated that the use of copyrighted material to train AI models requires the approval of copyright owners, with licensing arrangements and royalty payments to be agreed by the relevant parties. The statement referred specifically to Section 27 of the Copyright Act 1987. This issue is becoming increasingly important as Malaysia considers amendments to its copyright framework. MyIPO has indicated that proposed reforms may address AI, online piracy, orphan works, artists’ resale rights and copyright dispute resolution. The legal landscape is therefore evolving, and businesses should be cautious about treating AI training or AI-generated output as automatically free from copyright restrictions.
Why does this matter to Malaysian businesses?
AI adoption is taking place against a rapidly digitising business environment. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), 97.2% of Malaysian establishments used computers in 2024, while 74.4% had an online presence.
At the same time, Malaysia’s creative economy contributed RM130.7 billion, or 6.8% of GDP, in 2024, and employed more than 760,000 people, according to figures reported by The Edge Malaysia based on DOSM data.
For companies increasingly using AI to produce marketing materials, the practical risks include:
- uncertain copyright ownership;
- infringement of third-party copyright;
- difficulty proving human authorship;
- contractual disputes with designers or agencies; and
- uncertainty over whether AI-generated assets can be exclusively commercialised.
Businesses should therefore retain records of prompts, drafts, source materials, human edits and the creative development process where copyright ownership may later become important.
What should creators and businesses do?
Until Malaysian law provides more specific rules for AI-generated works, a prudent approach is to:
1. Treat AI as a tool, not automatically as the author.
Ensure meaningful human creative input where copyright protection is important.
2. Keep evidence of human contribution.
Save drafts, source files, editing records and development notes.
3. Check the AI platform’s terms.
Commercial-use and ownership provisions can differ between AI platforms.
4. Check third-party rights.
AI-generated content may still resemble or reproduce protected material.
5. Avoid assuming “AI-generated” means “copyright-free.”
The absence of copyright in one AI output does not give permission to copy someone else’s protected work.