Supreme People's Court Issues Opinions on AI Disputes to Clarify Rules and Promote Healthy Development

WISECODE Take

On September 7, 2026, the Supreme People's Court of China issued the "Opinions on Lawfully Hearing Disputes Involving Artificial Intelligence." The author observes that many business owners mistakenly believe this only affects AI developers, whereas it directly impacts all businesses using AI for commercial purposes. Articles 12 to 16 of the Opinions clarify that if AI-generated content infringes copyrights, users who knew or should have known of the prior work without a reasonable defense must bear liability. This shatters the myth of "AI-generation immunity" and signals that judicial organs will hold end-users legally accountable. This regulation does not affect R&D teams conducting internal technical testing without public disclosure. However, for companies utilizing AI in marketing and product design, Zhidian suggests utilizing our IP compliance audit services to ensure AI outputs do not violate the law. Businesses should take two actions: first, establish manual review and originality comparison mechanisms when using AI-generated commercial materials; second, require R&D teams to conduct compliance reviews on open-source code modules to avoid infringement risks.