Artificial Intelligence and Copyright: How Kazakhstan’s New Law Is Changing the Rules of the Game

In Kazakhstan the Law “On artificial intelligence” (hereinafter the “AI Law”) entered into force on 18 January 2026.

The AI Law addresses a wide range of issues, including risk management, transparency, and safety, as well as the creation of a national platform and data libraries. Among its provisions, those related to intellectual property, particularly copyright, represent some of the most anticipated and legally significant developments. For the first time in a dedicated legislative act, the state has expressly defined its approach to works created with the involvement of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is not recognised as an author, and specific criteria for the protection of such works have been introduced. Additionally, special rules regulating the training of models on protected content have been established.

Article 23 of the AI Law plays a pivotal role in the context of copyright law. It establishes a fundamental principle that works created using artificial intelligence systems are eligible for copyright protection only where a human creative contribution is present. In doing so, the legislature has definitively endorsed a model under which artificial intelligence is treated as a tool rather than a subject of creative activity. This marks a shift from the theoretical question of whether such works may be protected to a practical assessment of what the human author has actually done and how their creative choices are expressed.

In practice, this approach shifts the focus from the mere fact of using artificial intelligence to an analysis of the creative process leading to the final result. Particular importance will be attached to editorial revision, composition, narrative structure, artistic and stylistic decisions, and the internal logic of the text or image. For Kazakhstani courts and for the Republican State Enterprise “National Institute of Intellectual Property” under the Committee for Intellectual Property Rights of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan (hereinafter referred to as the “Expert organisation”), the decisive factor in matters of deposit and registration of copyright objects will be the presence of a human creative contribution.

The Digital Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled to enter into force in July 2026, further reinforce this approach at the higher legislative level. Article 23 of the Digital Code defines software as a digital object consisting of a set of codes that implement algorithms and enable the processing and transmission of data. At the same time, it expressly provides that rights to software are protected in accordance with the Republic of Kazakhstan’s legislation on copyright and related rights.

Thus, from the perspective of private law, artificial intelligence systems are classified as a software, while the legal regime governing their outputs continues to be grounded in traditional copyright law. This confirms the model chosen by the legislature, under which artificial intelligence is treated as a technical tool rather than as an independent subject of intellectual property.

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Author: Timur Berekmoinov, Partner, Head of Intellectual Property Department