The paper is devoted to the protection of copyright objects in the context of the active use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in content creation. It examines practical issues of identifying the author/copyright holder, distinguishing permissible borrowing and adaptation in the creation of digital objects. The importance of modernizing the Russian system of intellectual rights to maintain scientific and technological leadership and to balance private and public interests is substantiated. The concept of complex objects of intellectual property rights occupies a central place: alongside objects named in the law, unnamed complex objects of the digital environment (websites, platform accounts) are analyzed, their classification and a two-tier protection model are proposed, with a distinction being made between the platform and the hosted content. The legal framework for digital avatars, including cases of using an individual’s image, is examined separately, along with the contractual terms of AI services and methods for documenting evidence of authorship and rights. Considerable attention is given to the free use of works and citation on the Internet: criteria of lawfulness (purpose, scope, attribution of author and source) are identified, and the need for legislative clarification of the rules of citation for online formats and works created by artificial intelligence is highlighted.