_Maybe_ software is fundamentally different to other "creative works" which rely on copyright protection, but it's not immediately clear it is, and as far as I know it's certainly not a "special edge case" as defined in copyright law in general.
So "Can this AI regurgitate the vast majority of the creative aspects of an original/novel piece of software" is not the test that, for example, the music industry uses when determining if a sample is infringing. The test there is "is a sample, however small, identifiable as part of a copyright work by a reasonable person trained in the art?"
You can't own copyright in a composition of a single middle c note. But lawsuits have been won for copyright infringement of melodies of 2 bars (fewer than about 16 consecutinve notes). Men At Work lost a copyright case for the flute melody in Land Downunder which is the same as a 90 year old tune Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gunmtree https://www.claytonutz.com/knowledge/2010/february/men-at-wo...
Whether that's done by a flute player or an AI, really doesn't make any difference as far as copyright law sees things.
(Whether copyright law is a "good fit" for source code, and whether it makes sense to apply laws meant for books/literature/music/film to software is a different but very good question. I don't have much in the way of other ideas which take original author's efforts and potential rights to benefit from then though...)
FWIW, in this case I was trying to feel out what I think is a good fit for copyright in general. I think the same test could be applied for books, music, art, etc.
So "Can this AI regurgitate the vast majority of the creative aspects of an original/novel piece of software" is not the test that, for example, the music industry uses when determining if a sample is infringing. The test there is "is a sample, however small, identifiable as part of a copyright work by a reasonable person trained in the art?"
You can't own copyright in a composition of a single middle c note. But lawsuits have been won for copyright infringement of melodies of 2 bars (fewer than about 16 consecutinve notes). Men At Work lost a copyright case for the flute melody in Land Downunder which is the same as a 90 year old tune Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gunmtree https://www.claytonutz.com/knowledge/2010/february/men-at-wo...
Whether that's done by a flute player or an AI, really doesn't make any difference as far as copyright law sees things.
(Whether copyright law is a "good fit" for source code, and whether it makes sense to apply laws meant for books/literature/music/film to software is a different but very good question. I don't have much in the way of other ideas which take original author's efforts and potential rights to benefit from then though...)