02/09/2026
If you can't explain why you chose this version over the other nineteen, you are not the author. You are the audience.
That was my position on the "Creating with AI" panel at Property Office of Singapore's IP Week last week.
As AI and the copyright law are still evolving. The practical position is less murky than people assume: copyright still attaches to human authorship. But as creative professionals, almost nothing we deliver will just be raw model output — it is directed, selected, cut, argued over and intentionally chosen. That human contribution is the protectable part. It is also the part clients are actually paying for.
Output is cheap now. What isn't cheap is someone willing to say "no, not that one, this one," put their name on it, and answer for it when it lands badly.
So to anyone waiting for the law to settle before they decide how to work: don't. Write the contract as if it already has. Be explicit about what's AI-assisted, keep your working files, price the judgement rather than the hours.
Thanks to Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) for having me at the panel discussion and thanks to our moderator, Jiamin Leow and my fellow panelist, Henri Kang