[BeefySwain]

Why is a binary (compiled machine code) protected by copyright, but the raw output of an AI model is not?

[andsoitis]

Courts have ruled that compilation does not remove originality—the binary is still a transformation of an original, copyrighted work (the source code).

[realusername]

Because binaries are a transformation of the source code, which is written by a human.

Other kind of binaries which are fully generated by a machine like private keys aren't copyrightable.