In an era where the use of generative artificial intelligence is becoming the norm, it is important to recognize that prompts can give rise to copyright, especially when they contain creative elements that may qualify for protection. A prompt is an input phrase that provides instructions to generative AI on “what one wishes to create.” For instance: Short Prompt: simple commands (e.g., “generate a photo of a beautiful landscape”) and Long Prompt: commands specifying detailed instructions for the AI (e.g., “draw a single house on an autumn plateau under a blue sky, in the style of an oil painting”). It is clear that prompt design, developed through research by companies and individuals to improve the quality of outputs, is becoming an intellectual asset rather than a mere command. Indeed, there is a concrete possibility that prompts may be recognized as copyrightable works and should therefore be managed and administered in accordance with intellectual property principles. Italian and European legislation on this issue is limited: it only acknowledges copyright protection in relation to the human contribution to the creation of a work. In this respect, it is useful to consider the perspective of the Japanese legislator regarding prompt copyright. The criteria for determining whether a prompt can be considered a protected work in Japan focus on three questions: is it an expression (not just an idea or fact)? - Does it display creativity (not a trivial expression)? - Was it created by a human being? If the instructions given to generative AI remain at the level of ideas without reaching creative expression, then the product generated by AI cannot be considered a copyrighted work. From a commercial standpoint, prompts represent know how, while the generated products - artworks - are the outcome. It is advisable to manage these two elements together rather than separately: the work is generated by the command (the prompt). It may therefore be useful to record who used which prompts and for what purpose, as well as to create contracts defining the scope of use of the generated products. This framework also paves the way for a new kind of artist: the prompter, someone who does not draw or paint, but instead writes a string of text and presses the enter key. Yet, the selection of keywords to be typed is fundamental to the creative process. After all, Kant, in his “Critique of Judgment”, already identified artistic genius with the ability to produce beauty according to ever innovative compositional rules.
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