Legal and Rights Issues of Using AI in Writing and Editing for Indian Authors.
AI is causing major upheaval in businesses. It enables one person to carry out tasks in much less time than was ever possible. It can carry out tasks that writers were struggling to accomplish in just one or two commands. Flawless writing, with correct grammar, spelling, voice, tense, etc., can be churned out in minutes, if not seconds. If writing is becoming accessible on command, why would a writer take the trouble to think, write, rewrite, and rewrite again, and still not have it as good as one produced by AI?
Using AI for writing and editing is exploding in India. Anyone who has got on to the AI bandwagon is using AI to write, write emails, blogs, notes and even books. If AI in writing has spread so widely, it is in the writer’s best interest to be aware of the legal and rights implications of using AI in writing/editing for Indian authors. In this write-up, we cover all your queries regarding AI-generated content ownership in India, Indian copyright AI writing, and who owns AI-generated writing in India.
Authorship and Copyright Ownership
To understand how using generative AI will affect the legal rights in writing/editing for Indian authors. We need to understand what generative AI is, get a brief overview of copyright law as it applies to writers and authors, and who can be considered an author.
1. What is generative AI?
A system that is capable of producing images, text, code and other outputs that are similar to human capability. Systems such as Gemini, Chat GPT, and Co-pilot.
2. Who is an author under the Indian Copyright Act 1957?
An author refers to refers to a person or entity, like an institution, that creates the literary work.
3. What can be copyrighted by an Indian author under the Indian copyright law?
Under the Indian Copyright law, governed by the Copyright Act 1957. Allows copyright to original literary, artistic and dramatic works and attributes authorship to natural persons.
4. AI copyright law in India
AI seems to have suddenly burst onto the world; in reality, the making of generative AI has taken decades, with the fruits now evident and mostly free.. This raises ethical concerns for writers creating original content. This original content can be scraped by AI systems and churned out to unsuspecting users, causing significant loss to the original content creator. As of now, the Copyright law of India provides no safeguards for authors using AI in writing.
5. Will the AI-generated content ownership in India reside with the author or writer?
As of 2025, the 1957 Copyright Act is silent on ownership of AI-generated content in India. As per Indian law, it only recognises natural persons or juristic entities, like institutions and companies, who have created original content, as authors. The law is silent on non-human authorship as of 2025.
6. Then who owns AI-generated writing in India?
The law, as of now, is silent on this question of who owns AI –generated content, as it does not recognise AI as an author.
7. Indian copyright AI writing
It is clear that Indian copyright for AI writing is largely a grey area. Copyright for AI-generated content is an issue the courts have taken cognisance of, but there is no act to safeguard it. For now, original content produced by a natural entity will only be granted copyright protection.
8. Can AI be considered an author?
The Indian Copyright Act does not recognise AI to be an author as of 2025. A human must be
shown to have exercised significant control over the authorship of the AI content.
9. Legal Gaps and Grey Areas
There are large legal gaps for AI content in India. Several court cases are being examined. Hopefully, we can look forward to the formulation of the AI copyright law in India by 2026. Indian AI writing faces legal and ethical challenges ahead.
Who is liable for errors in AI-generated writing in India?
The irony for a writer is that if an article or a novel generated by AI has errors in it, the liability for incorrect information rests with the publisher or author of that article. Mitigation can be possible through a clearly worded disclaimer showing the AI origin of the article.
For an Indian author, a novel or book written by AI will not be eligible for copyright protection in India. The legal system is cognisant of the widespread use of AI, and we should see some laws being formulated as early as 2026.
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