AI Inventors Should Be Credited for Inventions, Scientist Petitions

Artificial intelligence (AI) that get to invent life-changing discoveries are not so far away from the future. However, an expert patent attorney said AI inventors should be awarded patents like their human counterparts.

Ryan Abbott, a University of Surrey's law and health sciences professor, is also a patent attorney at the U.S. Patent Office. In a paper published in the Boston College Law Review, he said it may be time to acknowledge computers as inventors.

He argued that this can incentivize the development of creative computers and inspire more innovations.

Abbott told Singularity Hub that current patent laws aren't updated enough to realize that "nonhuman" or AI inventors have inventions that are patentable.

He added that the arrival of computers can potentially spark a "rethinking" of what exactly makes up inventiveness. It may be time to ask ourselves once more just what makes something worthy of a patent? After all, Abbott Said, it's not "hard" to get a patent for a patentable invention.

Granted, there are multiple criteria for getting patents, but it boils down to three. Obviously, an invention must be novel and new. It should also be non-obvious, or extremely far away from existing technology. Lastly, it must be useful to society.

Abbott said there are already a handful of inventions that meet the criteria that aren't made by robots. He said examples are several music compositions, food recipes, and even the Oral-B CrossAction toothbrush.

If these criteria are met by a product that an AI designed, then it should be patented.

Of course, another alternative is to assign the patents to the owners of the AI inventors. This is similar to software ownership. However, conflicts may arise if AI inventors by different individuals collaborate.

Abbott emphasized that it's the arrival of factors like these that require fleshing out the patent system.

He added that we should think ahead given the developments in AI technology, as various companies and individuals are striving to make new developments in the horizon.